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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

?R-ir^3 

Chap. Copyright No. 

Shell^4_____. S 7 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



" Our Reuels now are ended : These our actors, 
(As I foretold you) were all Spirits, and 
Are melted into Ayre, into thin Ayre, 
And like the baselesse fabricke of this vision 
The Clowd-capt Towres, the gorgeous Pallaces, 
The solemne Temples, the great Globe it selfe, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolue, 
And like this insubstantiall Pageant faded 
Leaue not a racke behinde : we are such stuffe 
As dreames are made on ; and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleepe." 

Folio of 1623. The Tempest, IV, i, 148-158. 




WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. 



SHAKESPEARE'S 



COMEDY OF 



THE TEMPEST 



EDITED WITH NOTES 



HOMER B. SPRAGTJE, A.M., Ph.D. 

FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY ; AFTERWARDS PRESIDENT 

OF THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA ; FOUNDER OF THE MARTHA'S 

VINEYARD SUMMER IN8TITUTE ; LECTURER ON SHAKESPEARE, MILTON, 

GOLDSMITH, ETC., UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE AMERICAN 80CIETY 

FOR THE EXTENSION OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING 



WITH 

SUGGESTIONS AND PLANS FOR STUDY, TOPICS 
FOR ESSAYS, ETC. 




SILVER, BURDETT AND COMPANY 

New York BOSTON Chicago 

1896 






Copyright, 1896, 
By SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY. 



3U'h 



Norfoooto 5Press 

J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith 
Norwood Mass. U.S.A. 



PREFACE. 



This edition of Shakespeare's The Tempest is designed to meet 
especially the wants of teachers and students, but it is hoped that 
many others may find it useful. Of course all the notes will not 
be alike valuable to each, but probably nine of every ten readers 
will find in them something helpful. 

If it be asked, "Why add another to the many school editions?" 
the following points of difference between it and most if ^not all 
of the other editions may be mentioned : — 

1. The notes are intended to stimulate rather than supersede 
thought. 

2. The results of many of the latest studies in interpretation by 
scholars have been given. 

3. The edition continually presents for choice the various opin- 
ions of leading editors and commentators. 

4. It suggests some of the best methods of studying English 
literature, and of making the finest passages the basis of lessons in 
language and rhetoric. 

5. It contains critical comments by Assistant Professor Wendell, 
Dr. Furness, and other recent writers, as well as by Coleridge, 
Schlegel, and other geniuses of past generations ; also topics for 
essays, and an unusually copious index. 

6. Out of regard for the feelings of youth, it treats with more 
delicacy than most editions certain passages difficult to handle in 

mixed classes. 

5 



6 PREFACE. 

As in our edition of Hamlet, Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, As 
You Like It, Midsummer Night's Dream, and Julius Ccesar, we fol- 
low, -in numbering the lines, the excellent edition of Dr. Rolfe. 

To make the student's mastery of these dramas easy, complete, 
and delightful ; to insure in him some appreciation of the richness 
of Shakespearian thought and the felicity of Shakespearian expres- 
sion ; to enlarge his vocabulary, sharpen his critical judgment, and 
store his memory with some of the choicest gems in literature ; 
and so to multiply his sources of enjoyment and lift him to a 
higher plane of being, — these are some of the principal objects 
sought in this new school edition. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction to The Tempest . 9 

Text, Position, Length, Unities 9 

Date of Composition ; Verse Tests .... 9 

Source of the Plot ........ 10 

Critical Comments 11 

, Dryden. — Johnson. — Hazlitt. — Schlegel. — Coleridge. — 
Skottowe. — Mrs. Jameson. — Campbell. — Heine. — 
Lloyd. — Hugo. — Montegut. — Lowell. — Phillpotts. — 
Russell. — Furnivall. — Hudson. — Kenible. — White. 
— Garnett, — Furness. — Wendell. 

Explanations of Abbreviated Forms 22 

The Tempest — Text and Foot-notes ..... 25 

Appendix. 

How to Study English Literature .... 133 

Specimen Examination Papers 139 

Topics for Essays 141 

Index . 143 

7 



INTEODTJCTION. 



The earliest text of The Tempest is that of the First Folio (1623). 
It is printed there with remarkable correctness, according to Furness. 
Hudson declares, however, that "the play is badly printed, consider- 
ably worse than most of the plays first printed in that volume." 

Its position is first in the Folio. It has been suggested that it was 
selected to occupy that place by the editors, Heminge and Condell, to 
make the book as attractive and salable as possible ; that they put 
first in order the comedies, and, of the comedies, that one regarded as 
the greatest in charm, in beauty, in attractiveness. 

In length it is the shortest with one exception. The Tempest has 
2064 lines ; The Comedy of Errors, 1778. 

The unities are all observed ; place, time, and action. Herein it 
conforms more strictly to ancient classical rules than any other of the 
plays, except, perhaps, The Comedy of Errors. 

DATE OP COMPOSITION. 

After wading through what would be equivalent to some sixty or 
seventy close-packed pages of this, our edition of The Tempest, Fur- 
ness, in his great Variorum Edition, concludes thus : — 

" The Date of the Composition of The Tempest is assigned as follows : 
by Hunter, to 1596 ; by Knight, to 1602 or 1603 ; by Dyce, Staunton, 
after 1603 ; by Elze, to 1604 ; by Verplanck, to 1609 ; by Heraud, 
Fleay, Furnivall, to 1610 ; by Malone, Steevens, Collier, W. W. Lloyd, 
Halliwell, Grant White (ed. i), Keightley, Rev. John Hunter, W. A. 
Wright, Stokes, Hudson, A. W. Ward, D. Morris, to 1610-1611 ; by 
Chalmers, Tieck, Garnett, to 1613; by Holt, to 1614; by Capell (?), 
Farmer, Skottowe, Campbell, Bathurst, the Cowden-Clarkes, Phill- 
potts, Grant White (ed. ii), Deighton, a late, or the latest, play. 

"The voice of the majority pronounces in favor of 1610-1611. Let 
us all, therefore, acquiesce, and henceforth be, in this regard, shut up 
in measureless content." 

The verse tests, introduced during recent years, curiously confirm 
the opinion that The Tempest was one of the last of Shakespeare's 

9 



10 



INTRODUCTION. 



plays. For example : of end-stopt lines (lines in which the sense stops 
or partially stops at the end), the proportion to run-on lines (lines in 
which the sense runs on without break into the following verse) is, in 
the three plays which all admit to be among his earliest, Love's Labor's 
Lost, Comedy of Errors, and Two Gentlemen of Verona, as 18^ to 1, 
lOJ^ to 1, 10 to 1, respectively. But of end-stopt lines in the three 
plays which all concede to be among his very latest, The Tempest, 
Cymbeline, and The Winter's Tale, the proportion to run-on lines is 
but as 3| to 1, 2 i to 1, and 2±- to 1, respectively. In the earlier plays 
he is, so to speak, tied down to a particular kind of verse, that in 
which the sense stops or partially stops at the end ; in the later plays 
he is free from that bondage, and this freedom conduces wonderfully 
to dramatic power. 

The following comparison is significant : — 



Love's Labor's 

Lost . . . 

The Tempest . 



No. of pentam- 
eter (5 meas- 
ure) rhyming 
lines. 



1028 
2 



No. of pentam- 
eter (5 meas- 
ure) blank 
verse lines. 



579 
1458 



No. of extra 

(11) syllable 

lines. 



4 

33 



No. of 
run-on lines. 



lin 18 
1 in 3 



SOURCE OF THE PLOT. 

No source of the plot has been found. It is commonly thought that 
Shakespeare may have drawn it from some long-lost Italian novel. 

A few of the incidents may have been suggested to him by the story 
of Sir George Somers. 

It seems that in May, 1609, Sir George Somers sailed with a fleet 
of nine ships for Virginia. A terrible tempest scattered them in mid- 
ocean. Seven ships reached Virginia; but the Sea Venture, the 
admiral ship, was wrecked on one of the Bermuda islands, "a most 
prodigious and enchanted place, affording nothing but gusts, storms, 
and foul weather," "an enchanted pile of rocks, and a desert inhab- 
itation of devils." 

A pamphlet entitled A Discovery of the, Bermudas, otherwise called 
the Isle of Devils, published in 1610, gave an account of this storm 
and wreck. The sailors, exhausted, had given up all hope and bid 
each other farewell, when the ship was found jammed between two 
rocks, so that all lives were saved. For nine months they lived there, 
and repaired their ship. They found the island a delightful place. 
The air was balmy, the fairies were birds, and the devils, wild hogs ! 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

/ 

In John Holt's An Attempte to Rescue that Annciente, English 
Poet, And Play-Wrighte, Will lame Shakespeare, from the Maney 
Errours, faulsley charged on him, by Gertaine New-fangled Wittes ; 
And to let him Speak for Himself etc., published in 1749, the author, 
in speaking of the Masque in Act IV of The Tempest, where "Juno 
sings her blessings " on the young couple — 

Honor, Biches, Marriage-Blessing — 

suggests that this passage "may perhaps give a Mark to guess at the 
time this play was wrote ; it appearing to be a compliment intended 
by the Poet, on some particular solemnity of that kind ; and if so, 
none more likely than the contracting the young Earl of Essex, in 
1606, with the Lady Frances Howard ; which marriage was not at- 
tempted to be consummated, till the Earl returned from his travels 
four years afterwards ; a circumstance which seems to be hinted at, in 
IV, i, 18 ; unless any one should choose to think it designed for the 
marriage of the Palsgrave with the Lady Elizabeth, King James's 
Daughter, in 1612. But the first seems to carry most weight with it 
as being a testimony of the Poet's gratitude to the then Lord South- 
ampton, a warm Patron of the Author's, and as zealous a friend to the 
Essex family : In either case, it will appear, 't was one of the last 
Plays wrote by our Author, though it has stood the first in all the 
printed editions since 1623, which Preheminence given it by the Play- 
ers is no bad Pro»f of its being the last, this Author furnished them 
with." — Quoted from Furness. 

Tieck in 1817 discovered ' an analogue of The Tempest ' in an old 
German Comedy, Die schone Sidea, The Fair Sidea. Furness trans- 
lates it in full (Var. ed. pp. 325-341), and shows the improbability 
that Shakespeare could have drawn from it. 

CRITICAL COMMENTS. 1 

(From Drydeii's Preface to Troilus and Cressida, 1679.) 

To return once more to Shakespeare ; no man ever drew so many 
characters, or generally distinguished 'em better from one another, 
excepting only Jonson : I will instance but one, to show the copious- 
ness of his invention ; 't is that of Calyban, or the monster in The 
Tempest. He seems there to have created a person which was not in 
Nature, a boldness which at first sight would appear intolerable ; for 
he makes him a species of himself, begotten by an Incubus on a Witch ; 

1 These comments are not selected with a view of presenting a complete treatment of 
any points or topics ; but, rather, to awaken the reader's interest, and stimulate him 
to further investigation and independent judgment. 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

but this, as I have elsewhere prov'd, is not wholly beyond the bounds 
of credibility ; at least the vulgar stile believe it. . . . Whether or 
no his generation can be defended, I leave to Philosophy ; but of this 
I am certain, the Poet has most judiciously furnish'd him with a per- 
son, a language, and a character which will suit him both by Father's 
and Mother's side ; he has all the discontents and malice of a Witch, 
and of a Devil ; besides a convenient proportion of the deadly sins. 

{From Johnson's Edition, 1773.) 

Whatever might be Shakespeare's intention in forming or adopting 
the plot, he has made it instrumental to the production of many char- 
acters, diversified with boundless invention, and preserved with pro- 
found skill in nature, extensive knowledge of opinions, and accurate 
observation in life. In a single drama are here exhibited princes, 
courtiers, and sailors, all speaking in their real characters. There is 
the agency of airy spirits, and of an earthly goblin. The operations 
of magic, the tumults of a storm, the adventures of a desert island, the 
native effusion of untaught affection, the punishment of guilt, and the 
final happiness of the pair for whom our passions are equally interested. 

{From William HazlitVs Characters of Shakespeare* s Plays, 1817.) 

The Tempest is one of the most original and perfect of Shakespeare's 
productions, and he has shown in it all the variety,, of his powers. It 
is full of grace and grandeur. The human and imaginary characters, 
the dramatic and the grotesque, are blended together with the greatest 
art, and without any appearance of it. Though he has here given 
" to airy nothing a local habitation and a name," yet that part which 
is only the fantastic creation of his mind has the same palpable text- 
ure and coheres "semblably" with the rest. As the preternatural 
part has the air of reality, and almost haunts the imagination with 
a sense of truth, the real characters and events partake of the wild- 
ness of a dream. . . . 

Even the local scenery is of a piece and character with the subject. 
Prospero's enchanted island seems to have risen up out of the sea ; 
the airy music, the tempest-tossed vessel, the turbulent waves, all 
have the effect of the landscape background of some fine picture. 

(From SchlegeVs Lectures, 1815.) 

In the zephyr-like Ariel the image of air is not to be mistaken ; . . . 
as, on the other hand, Caliban signifies the heavy elements of earth. 
Yet they are neither of them allegorical personifications, but beings 
individually determined. In general, we find in The Midsummer 
NighVs Dream, in The Tempest, in the magical part of Macbeth, and 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

wherever Shakespeare avails himself of the popular belief in the in- 
visible presence of spirits, and the possibility of coming in contact 
with them, a profound view of the inward life of Nature and her 
mysterious springs. 

{From Coleridge's Lectures and Notes, 1818.) 

With love, pure love, there is always an anxiety for the safety of 
the object, a disinterestedness by which it is distinguished from the 
counterfeits of its name. Compare Borneo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 
ii, with The Tempest, III, i. I do not know a more wonderful in- 
stance of Shakespeare's mastery, in playing a distinctly rememberable 
variation on the same remembered air, than in the transporting love 
confessions of Romeo and Juliet and Ferdinand and Miranda. There 
seems more passion in one, and more dignity in the other ; yet you 
feel that the sweet girlish lingering and busy movement of Juliet, and 
the calmer and more maidenly fondness of Miranda, might easily pass 
into each other. 

{From Skottowe's Life of Shakespeare, etc., 1824.) 

The most decisive instance of the pre-eminence of Prospero as a 
magician is the obedience of Ariel. The necromancer of ordinary 
acquirements domineered over inferior spirits ; the more skilful, over 
invisible beings of a more exalted nature ; but that artist, alone, whose 
powerful genius had led him triumphant through the whole range of 
human science, could aspire to the control of spirits resident in the 
highest regions of spiritual existence. 

{From Mrs. Jameson's Characteristics of Women, ed. ii, 1833.) 

Let us imagine any other woman placed beside Miranda — even one 
of Shakespeare's own loveliest and sweetest creations — there is not 
one of them that could sustain the comparison for a moment ; not one 
that would not appear somewhat coarse or artificial when brought into 
immediate contact with this pure child of nature, this "Eve of an 
enchanted Paradise." 

What, then, has Shakespeare done ? — "0 wondrous skill and sweet 
wit of the man ! " — he has removed Miranda far from all comparison 
with her own sex ; he has placed her between the demi-demon of earth 
and the delicate spirit of air. The next step is into the ideal and 
supernatural ; and the only being who approaches Miranda, with 
whom she can be contrasted, is Ariel. Beside the subtle essence of 
this ethereal sprite, this creature of elemental light and air, that ' ' ran 
upon the winds, rode the curl'd clouds, and in the colors of the rain- 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

bow lived," Miranda herself appears a palpable reality, a woman, 
"breathing thoughtful breath," a woman, walking the earth in her 
mortal loveliness, with a heart as frail-strung, as passion-touched, as 
ever fluttered in a female bosom. 

{From CampbelVs Dramatic Works of Shakespeare, 1838.) 

The Tempest, however, has a sort of sacredness as the last work of 
the mighty workman. Shakespeare, as if conscious that it would be 
his last, and as if inspired to typify himself, has made its hero a natu- 
ral, a dignified, and benevolent magician, who could conjure up spirits 
from the vasty deep, and command supernatural agency by the most 
seemingly natural means. . . . And this final play of our poet has 
magic indeed ; for what can be in simpler language than the courtship 
of Ferdinand and Miranda, and yet what can be more magical than 
the sympathy with which it subdues us ? Here Shakespeare himself is 
Prospero, or rather the superior genius who commands both Prospero 
and Ariel. But the time was approaching when the potent sorcerer 
was to break his staff, and to bury it fathoms in the ocean — " deeper 
than ever did plummet sound." That staff has never been, and never 
will be, recovered. 

(From Heine'' s Shakespeare' 's Madchen und Frauen, 1839.) 

... To what shall I compare you, Juliet and Miranda ? I look up 
to the heavens and there seek your image. Perchance it lies behind 
the stars, where my gaze cannot penetrate. Perhaps if the glowing 
sun should have the mildness of the moon, I could compare it, Juliet, 
to thee ! If the gentle moon should e'en have the ardor of the sun, 
I would compare it, Miranda, to thee ! 

(From W. W. Lloyd^s Critical Essay, Singer's Second Edition, 1856.) 

It is most curious to observe how many of the topics brought up by 
colonies and colonization are indicated and characterized by the play. 
— The wonders of the new lands, new races ; the exaggerations of 
travellers, and their truths more strange than exaggeration ; new natu- 
ral phenomena, and superstitious suggestions of them ; the perils of the 
sea and shipwrecks, the effect of such fatalities in awakening remorse 
for ill deeds, not unremembered because easily committed ; the quar- 
rels and mutinies of colonists for grudges new and old ; the contests 
for authority of the leaders, and the greedy misdirection of industry 
while even subsistence is precarious ; the theories of government for 
plantations, the imaginary and actual characteristics of man in the 
state of nature ; the complications with the indigence ; the resort, 



INTROD UCTION. 1 5 

penalty or otherwise, to compelled labor ; the reappearance on new- 
soil of the vices of the older world ; the contrast of moral and intel- 
lectual qualities between the civilized and the savage, with all the 
requirements of activity, promptitude, and vigor demanded for the 
efficient and successful administration of a settlement, — all these 
topics, problems, and conjunctures came up in the plantation of Vir- 
ginia, by James I ; and familiarity with them and their collateral 
dependence would heighten the sensibility of the audience to every 
scene of a play which presented them in contrasted guise, but in a 
manner that only the more distinctly brought them home to their 
cardinal bearings in the philosophy of society — of man. 

{From FranQois - Victor Hugo's CEuvres Completes de Shake- 
speare, 1865.) 

Many commentators agree in the belief that The Tempest is the last 
creation of Shakespeare. I will readily believe it. There is in The 
Tempest the solemn tone of a testament. It might be said that, before 
his death, the poet in this epopee of the ideal, had designed a codicil 
for the Future. In this enchanted isle, full of " sounds and sweet airs 
that give delight," we may expect to behold Utopia, the promised land 
of future generations, Paradise regained. Who in reality is Prospero, 
the king of the isle ? Prospero is the shipwrecked sailor who reaches 
the port, the exile who regains his native land, he who from the depth 
of despair becomes all-powerful, the worker who by his science has 
tamed matter, Caliban, and by his genius the spirit, Ariel. Prospero 
is man, the master of Nature and the despot of destiny ; he is the 
man-Providence ! 

The Tempest is the supreme denouement, dreamed by Shakespeare, 
for the bloody drama of Genesis. It is the expiation of the primordial 
crime. The region whither it transports us is the enchanted land 
where the sentence of damnation is absolved by clemency, and where 
reconciliation is ensured by amnesty to the fratricide. And, at the 
close of the piece, when the poet, touched by emotion, throws Antonio 
into the arms of Prospero, he has made Cain pardoned by Abel. 

{From Emile Montegut, in Bevae cles Deux Mondes, 1865.) 

The Tempest is clearly the last of Shakespeare's dramas, and, under 
the form of an allegory, is the dramatic last will and testament of the 
great poet, his adieux to that faithful public whose applause, during 
the short space of five and twenty years, he had gained for five and 
twenty masterpieces, and more than eleven others which, full of 
imagination and charm, would have made for any lesser mortal the 
most enviable of crowns ; in a word, this drama is a poetic synthesis, 
or, as Prospero would express it in the language of a magician, it 



1 6 INTROD UCTION. 

is a microcosm of that dramatic world which, his imagination had 
created. 

Although the last of Shakespeare's plays, it is in that volume placed 
first, because, like the emblematic frontispieces of antique books, it 
prepares the reader for the substance of all that follows. No other 
play will do this, none other is such a synthesis of all. . . . The whole 
Shakespearian world is brought before the imagination by the charac- 
ters of Prospero, of Ariel, of Caliban, and of Miranda. 

{From LowelVs Among my Books, 1870.) 

There is scarce a play of Shakespeare's in which there is such a 
variety of character, none in which character has so little to do in the 
carrying on and development of the story. But consider for a mo- 
ment, if ever the Imagination has been so embodied as in Prospero, 
the Fancy as in Ariel, the brute Understanding as in Caliban, who, 
the moment his poor wits are warmed with the glorious liquor of 
Stephano, plots rebellion against his natural lord, the higher Reason. 
Miranda is mere abstract Womanhood, as truly so before she sees 
Perdinand as Eve before she was wakened to consciousness by the 
echo of her own nature coming back to her, the same, and yet not the 
same, from that of Adam. Ferdinand, again, is nothing more than 
Youth, compelled to drudge at something he despises, till the sacrifice 
of will and abnegation of self win him his ideal in Miranda. The 
subordinate personages are simply types ; Sebastian and Antonio and 
Prancisco, of the walking gentlemen who fill up a world. They are 
not characters in the same sense with Iago, Falstaff, Shallow, or 
Leontes ; and it is curious how every one of them loses his way in 
this enchanted island of life, all the victims of one illusion after 
another, except Prospero, whose ministers are purely ideal. The 
whole play indeed is a succession of illusions, winding up with those 
solemn words of the great enchanter who had summoned to his service 
every shape of merriment or passion, every figure in the great tragic 
comedy of life, and who was now bidding farewell to the scene of his 
triumphs. Por in Prospero shall we not recognize the artist himself, — 

" That did not better for his life provide 
Than public means ^yhich public manners breeds, 
Whence comes it that his name receives a brand," — 

who has forfeited a shining place in the world's eye by devotion to his 
art, and who, turned adrift on the ocean of life on the leaky carcass of 
a boat, has shipwrecked on that Fortunate Island (as men always do 
who find their true vocation) , where he is absolute lord, making all 
the powers of Nature serve him, but with Ariel and Caliban as special 
ministers ? 



INTRODUCTION. ±J 



(From J. Surtees PhillpotVs Rugby Edition, 1876.) 

Another poet had depicted a magical tempest with a shipwrecked 
prince cast upon an enchanted island, and there relieved and tended 
by a king's daughter. The pictures are both beautiful, but they are 
not the same, and their difference is as marked a feature in their 
beauty as their likeness. — If an uneducated person wished to under- 
stand the meaning of a poetical creation, or, in other words, to see in 
what the essential unity of a poem consisted, he could hardly do better 
than exchange the details in Homer's canvas (Od. vi, 244, 275, 310), 
piece by piece, for those in Shakespeare. . . . 

There is a real resemblance, on the other hand, between the charac- 
ters of Nausicaa and Miranda. Each stands before us as an ideal of 
maidenhood, while the depths of tenderness in each are half revealed 
to us by their expressions of pity and sympathy. . . . Yet for all its 
unrivalled simplicity, Miranda's character marks the growth in the 
conception of woman's relation to society since the epic times. Nau- 
sicaa is no free agent : she may have preferences, but she does not 
choose ; with a Quaker-like simplicity we see her preparing for her 
wedding with the suitor of her father's choice. Shakespeare required 
for his Miranda an amount of self-assertion which to Nausicaa would 
have seemed indecorous. 

(From Edward B. Bussell in Theological Beview, October 1876.) 

. . . We have in Prosper© a being capable of calling forth spirits, of 
causing storms and shipwrecks, miraculous escapes and supernatural 
restorations, and indeed of doing everything very much as the Deity 
can, according to the received theory of special providences. To him, 
in the seemingly cruel exercise of his power, his daughter Miranda 
makes appeal in the celebrated passage, spoken in sight of the ship- 
wreck, beginning : " If by your art, my dearest father, you have put 
the wild waters in this roar, allay them." May we not consider the 
rest of the play an answer, as this passage is an echo, to the weary 
doubts of ages in the presence of calamities caused by Omnipotence, 
which seems malevolent in not having prevented them ? 

(From FumivalV s Leopold Shakespeare Introduction, 1877.) 

No play brings out more clearly than The Tempest the Fourth-Period 
spirit (i.e. of Reunion, of Reconciliation, and Forgiveness), and 
Miranda evidently belongs to that time ; she and her fellow, Perdita, 
being idealizations of the sweet country maidens whom Shakespeare 
would see about him in his renewed family life at Stratford. . . . 
Turn back to the First-Period Midsummer Night's Dream, and com- 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

pare with its Stratford girls, stained with the tempers and vulgarities 
of their day, these Fourth-Period creations of pure beauty and refine- 
ment, all earth's loveliness filled with all angels' grace, and recognize 
what Shakespeare's growth has been. . . . The general consent of 
critics and readers identifies Shakespeare, in the ripeness of his art 
and power, more with Prospero than with any other of his characters ; 
just as the like consent identifies him, in his restless and unsettled 
state, in his style of less perfect art, with Hamlet. — When we compare 
Prospero' s " We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little 
life is rounded with a sleep," with all the questionings and fears about 
the future life which perplexed and terrified Hamlet and Claudio, we 
may see what progress Shakespeare has himself made in soul. . . . 
Contrast, too, for a moment, Oberon's care for the lovers in the 
Dream, with the beautiful, tender feeling of Prospero for Miranda 
and Ferdinand here. He stands above them almost as a god, yet 
sharing their feelings and blessing them. Note, too, how his tender- 
ness for Miranda revives in his words, " The fringed curtains of thine 
eyes advance," the lovely fancy of his youth, her "two blue windows 
faintly she upheaveth " ( Ven. and Ad. 482). He has seized in Miranda, 
as in Perdita, on a new type of sweet country-girl unspoilt by town 
devices, and glorified it into a being fit for an angel's world. And as 
he links earth to heaven with Miranda, so he links earth to hell with 
Caliban. 

{From Hudson's Introduction to the Play, 1879.) 

The Tempest is on all hands regarded as one of Shakespeare's per- 
fectest works. Some of his plays, I should say, have beams in their 
eyes ; but this has hardly so much as a mote ; or, if it have any motes, 
my own eyes are not clear enough to discern them. I dare not pro- 
nounce the work faultless, for this is too much to affirm of any human 
workmanship ; but I venture to think that whatever faults it may 
have are such as criticism is hardly competent to specify. In the 
characters of Ariel, Miranda, and Caliban, we have three of the most 
unique and original conceptions that ever sprang from the wit of man. 
We can scarce imagine how the Ideal could be pushed further beyond 
Nature; yet we here find it clothed with all the truth and life of 
Nature. And the whole texture of incident and circumstance is 
framed in keeping with that Ideal ; so that all the parts and particu- 
lars cohere together, mutually supporting and supported. 

(From Mrs. F. A. Kemble's Notes, etc., 1882.) 

... It is not a little edifying to reflect how different Prospero' s 
treatment of these young people's case would have been if, instead of 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

only the most extraordinary of conjurers, he had been the most com- 
monplace of scheming matrons of the present day. He, poor man, 
alarmed at the sudden conquest Ferdinand makes of his child, and 
perceiving that he must "this swift business uneasy make, lest too 
light winning make the prize light," can bethink himself of no better 
expedient than reducing the poor young prince into a sort of sup- 
plementary Caliban, a hewer of wood and drawer of water : now, a 
modern chaperon would merely have had to intimate to a well- trained 
modern young lady, that it would be as well not to give the young 
gentleman too much encouragement till his pretensions to the throne 
of Naples could really be made out (his straying about without any 
Duke of Newcastle, and very wet, was a good deal like a mere advent- 
urer, you know) ; and I am pretty certain that the judicious mamma, 
or female guardian of Miss Penelope Smith, the fair British Islander 
who became Princess of Capua, pursued no other system of provoca- 
tion by repression. An expert matrimonial schemer of the present 
day, I say, would have devised by these means a species of trial by 
torture for poor Ferdinand, to which his "sweating labour" as Pros- 
pero's patient log man would have been luxurious idleness. 

{From Bichard Grant White's Studies in Shakespeare, 1886.) 

Nothing is clearer to me, the more I read and reflect upon his works, 
than that, after Shakespeare's first three or four years' experience as 
a poet and dramatist, he was entirely without even any art-purpose or 
aim whatever, and used his materials just as they came to his hand. 
. . . The Tempest conforms to the unities of time and place merely 
because the story made it convenient for the writer to observe them ; 
The Winter's Tale defies them because its story made the observance 
of them very troublesome, and indeed almost, if not quite, impossible. 
There has been a great deal of ingenious speculation about Shake- 
speare's system of dramatic art. It is all unfounded, vague, and 
worthless. Shakespeare had no system of dramatic art. 

{From Dr. GarnetVs Irving Shakespeare, 1890.) 

The Tempest is not one of those plays whose interest consists in 
strong dramatic situations. The course of the action is revealed from 
the first. Prospero is too manifestly the controlling spirit to arouse 
much concern for his fortunes. Ferdinand and Miranda are soon put 
out of their pain, and Ariel lies beyond the limits of humanity. The 
action is simple and uniform, and all occurrences are seen converging 
slowly towards their destined point. No play, perhaps, more per- 
fectly combines intellectual satisfaction with imaginative pleasure. 
Above and behind the fascination of the plot and the poetry we behold 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

Power and Right evenly paired and working together, and the justifi- 
cation of Providence producing that sentiment of repose and acquies- 
cence which is the object and test of every true work of art. 

{From Dr. Horace Howard Fumess's Preface to Variorum 

Edition, 1892.) 

With the exception of Hamlet and Julius Ccesar no play has been 
more liberally annotated than The Tempest. 

Unquestionably, a large portion of this attention from editors and 
critics must be owing to the enduring charm of the Play itself, domi- 
nated as it is by two such characters as Prospero and Ariel, whose 
names have become almost the symbols of an overruling, forgiving 
wisdom, and of an "embodied joy whose race has just begun." 

There is yet a third character that shares with these two my pro- 
found wonder, and, as a work of art, my admiration. It is not 
Miranda, who, lovely as she is, is but a girl, and has taken no single 
step in that brave new world just dawning on the fringed curtains of 
her eyes. " To me," says Lady Martin, in a letter which I am kindly 
permitted to quote, "Miranda's life is all to come." We know, in- 
deed, that to her latest hour she will be the top of admiration, but, as 
a present object, the present eye sees in her only the exquisite possi- 
bilities of her exquisite nature. In Caliban it is that Shakespeare 
has risen, I think, to the very height of creative power, and, by mak- 
ing what is absolutely unnatural thoroughly natural and consistent, 
has accomplished the impossible. Merely as a work of art, Caliban 
takes precedence, I think, even of Ariel. 



The student will do well to read Browning's poem, Caliban upon 
Setebos; or Natural Theology in the Island. "The essence of the 
poem," says Furness, "lies in its alternative title, which sets forth 
the vague questionings of a keenly observant, but utterly untutored, 
mind in regard to the existence of an overruling power, the problem 
of evil, the mystery of pain, and the evidences of caprice, rather than 
of law, in the government of the world, — such restless longing for a 
solution of the mysteries of life as rise unbidden to the mind when 
looking on the ocean, at high noon, amid the full tide of summer life." 

(From Ass't Prof. Barrett WendelVs William Shakespeare, 1894.) 

The Tempest is a very great, very beautiful poem. As a poem one 
can hardly love or admire it too much. As a play, on the other hand, 
it is neither great nor effective. The reason is not far to seek : its 
motive is not primarily dramatic ; the mood it would express is not that 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

of a playwright, but rather that of an allegorist or philosopher. . . . 
The very complexity and the essential abstractness of the endlessly 
suggestive, philosophic motive of the Tempest is reason enough why, 
for all its power and beauty, the play should theatrically fail. Like 
Cymbeline, though far less obtrusively, it contains too much. Like 
Cymbeline it reveals itself at last as a colossal experiment, an attempt 
to achieve an effect which, this time at least, is hopelessly beyond 
human power. Less palpably than Cymbeline, but just as surely, the 
Tempest finally seems laborious. . . . The motive of the Tempest 
we have seen to be philosophic, or allegorical, or at least something 
other than purely artistic. . . . This quality of deliberation, per- 
haps, typifies the fatal trouble. Creatively and technically powerful as 
the Tempest is, — sustained, too, and simplified, and beautiful,— | it has 
throughout a relation to real life which we cannot feel unintentional. 
In a spontaneous work of art, one feels that the relation of its truth to 
the truth of life is not intended, but is rather the result of the essen- 
tial veracity of the artist's observation and expression. In such an 
effect as that of the Tempest one grows more and more to feel that, 
for all its power, for all its mastery, for all its beauty, the play is really 
a tremendous effort. ... In Cymbeline we found what seemed a 
deliberate attempt to assert artistic power at a moment when that 
power was past the spontaneous vigor of maturity. Here, in the 
Tempest, we find another such effort, more potent still. . . . His 
motive is not really dramatic, nor even purely artistic ; it is philo- 
sophic, allegorical, consciously and deliberately imaginative. His 
faculty of creating character, as distinguished from constructing it, is 
gone. All his power fails to make his great poem spontaneous, easy, 
inevitable. Like Cymbeline, it remains a Titanic effort ; and in an 
artist like Shakespeare, effort implies creative decadence, — the fatal 
approach of growing age. 



22 



INTRODUCTION. 



EXPLANATIONS OP ABBREVIATED FORMS. 

The abbreviations of the titles of books in the Bible and of Shake- 
speare's plays hardly need explanation. 



Abbott, Abbott's Shakespearian 
Grammar. 

Adj., adjective. 

Adv., adverb. 

Ar., Arabic. 

A.S., Anglo-Saxon. 

Beaum., Beaumont. 

Bracket, Brachet's French Ety- 
mological Dictionary. 

Celt., Celtic. 

Cent., Century (Dictionary). 

Class., Classical (Dictionary). 

Comus, Miltoo's Masque of 
Comus. 

Cot. Fr. Diet. , Cotgrave's French 
Dictionary. 

Dan., Danish. 

Diet., Dictionary. 

Dim. ordimin., diminutive. 

Du., Dutch. 

E., English or early. 

Ed., edition. 

E.E., Early English (about 1250- 
1350). 

Etc., et cetera, and the rest. 

Et seq., et sequentia, and the fol- 
lowing. 

Faerie Q., Spenser's Fairy 
Queen. 

Fr. , French. 

Furness, Furness's Variorum Edi- 
tion. 

Gael., Gaelic. 

G. or Germ., German. 

H.G., High German. 

lb. or ibid., ibidem, in the same. 

Icel., Icelandic. 



Id., idem, the same. 

I.e., id est, that is. 

Int. Diet., Webster's Interna- 
tional Dictionary. 

Ital., Italian. 

Lang., language. 

Lat., Latin. 

Maetz., Maetzner's Eyiglische 
Qrammatik. 

Med. or Medisev. , Medieval. 

Mid. Eng., Middle English (about 
1350-1550). 

New Eng. Diet., Murray's New 
English Dictionary. 

Nor. or Norw. , Norwegian. 

O., old. 

Obs., obsolete. 

Orig., original, or originally. ' 

Par. Lost, Paradise Lost. 

Par. Beg., Paradise Begained. 

Per., person (in grammar). 

Pers., Persian. 

Phila. , Philadelphia. 

Pres. , present (in grammar). 

Q. v., quod vide, which see. 

Schmidt, Schmidt's Shakespeare 
Lexicon. 

S. or Sh. or Shakes., Shakespeare. 

Sing., 'singular' (in grammar). 

Skeat, Skeat's Etymological Dic- 
tionary of the English Lan- 
guage. 

Span., Spanish. 

Var. Ed. , Variorum Edition. 

W., Welsh. 

Wb., Webster's Dictionary. 

Wore, Worcester's Dictionary. 



DKAMATIS PERSONS. 



Alonso, King of Naples. 
Sebastian, his brother. 
Prospero, the right Duke of Milan. 
Antonio, his brother, the usurping 

Duke of Milan. 
Ferdinand, son to the King of 

Naples. 
Gonzalo, an honest old Counsellor. 
Adrian, J Lordg 
Francisco, i 
Caliban, a savage and deformed 

Slave. 



Trinculo, a Jester. 
Stephano, a drunken Butler. 
Master of a Ship, Boatswain, Mari- 
ners. 
Miranda, daughter to Prospero. 
Ariel, an airy Spirit. 
Iris, ") 
Ceres, 

Juno, > presented by Spirits. 
Nymphs, | 
Reapers, J 
Other Spirits attending on Prospero. 



Scene : A ship at sea : an uninhabited island. 



THE TEMPEST. 



ACT I. 

Scene I. On a Ship at Sea: a tempestuous noise of thunder 
and lightning heard. 

Enter a Ship-master and a Boatswain. 

Master. Boatswain ! 
Boatswain. Here, master ; what cheer ? 
Master. Good: speak to the mariners : fall to % yarely, or 
we run ourselves aground ; bestir, bestir ! [Exit. 



ACT I. Scene I. 1. Boatswain (pronounced by all sailors bo-sn), 
A. S. swain, fr. Icel. sveinn, boy, servant. "The boatswain is to have 
charge of all the cordage, tackle, sails, fids (wooden pins), marline-spikes, 
needles, twine and sail-cloth, and rigging." Capt. John Smith's (our 
John Smith, founder of Virginia) Accidence for Young Seamen, 162G. — 
He has charge of the boats, colors, anchors, etc. — 2. master. He com- 
mands a merchant vessel as a captain does a ship of war. — cheer = out- 
look? encouraging prospect? See line 5. — Late Lat. cara, Old Fr. chere, 
face, appearance, look. See our Mer. of Venice, III, ii, 307. — John, xvi, 
33. — 3. Good — evasive, like ' well,' 'let that go,' 'no matter for that' 
[Hudson] ? ' I am glad you are at hand ' [Phillpotts, Moberly, Furness] ? 
' my good fellow ' [Dyce, White, Rolfe, Corson, Schmidt, Deighton, Meikle- 
john, etc.]? — The 'cheer' was good if they bestirred themselves? not 
otherwise? — See lines 14 and 18; Hamlet, our edition, I, i, 70; Wint. 
Tale, V, i, 19; Com. ofEr., IV, iv, 22; Rom. and Jul., I, v. 6; Abbott, 13. 
— Is there a sound of courtesy, a feeling of conciliation in the word? If 
so, would it be used vocatively by the master to his boatswain ? — After 
good in the folio is a colon, which is generally supposed to be here equiv- 
alent to a comma. — speak = say? call upon, apply to, exhort, hid do 
their best [Schmidt] ? — A notice to be ready for quick action ? — yarely. 
A. S. gearu, Old Eng. gearo, ready, quick, prompt. Skeat. " In the next 
speech yare, as an imperative verb, is be nimble, or be on the alert." 
Hudson. Yare is an adjective in V, i, 224. Is it still used? — g becomes 

25 



26 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. 



Enter Mariners. 

Boatswain. Heigh, my hearts ! cheerly, cheerly, my hearts ! 
yare, yare ! Take in the topsail. Tend to the master's whis- 
tle. — Blow till thou burst thy wind, if room enough ! 

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, 
and others. 

Alonso. Good boatswain, have care. Where's the master ? 
Play the men. 

Boatswain. I pray now, keep below. 10 

Antonio. Where is the master, boson ? 

Boatswain. Do you not hear him? You mar our labor. 
Keep your cabins ; you do assist the storm. 



y, as geong, young f dseg, day. 5. hearts. Sailors still say ' my hearties,' 
and like to be called ' hearts of oak.' 

cheerly. 1 Adv. ? So angerly, wonderly ; masterly in " Thou dost 
speak masterly," Twelfth N"., II, iv, 22. "See Abbott, 447.^ What the 
sailors need is cheerful courage, vigilant attentiveness, and prompt energy. 
Is the ship driving parallel with the shore ? — 6, 7. yare. So " Yare, yare, 
good Iras ; quick! " Ant. and Cleop., V, ii, 282. — topsail. Danger of cap- 
sizing? of grounding? — In a square-rigged vessel, the topsail is the one 
next above the lowermost sail. — "When the topsail is furled, the sails 
are snug, and they can defy the storm to burst its wind with blowing, if 
only there is sea-room enough ; which, by the next order, we see there is 
not." Phillpotts. — In Pericles (III, i, 44, 45, 46), we read — 

1 Sailor. Blow and split thyself ! 

2 Sailor. But sea-room, an the brine and cloudy billow kiss the moon, I care not. 

— So in Lear (III, ii, 1), "Blow winds, and crack your cheeks." The 
allusion is to the manner in which the winds are represented in ancient 
pictures, with their cheeks puffed out [Mason, Hudson, Deighton]? The 
humor of the comparison to a horse (as in l Henry IV, II, ii, 13) with 
short breath or diseased respiration, marks the self-reliance of the speaker 
[Phillpotts] ? — whistle. They are said to have been sometimes of silver 
or even of gold. See Furness. 

9. Play the men. So in 2 Samuel, x, 12; in Chapman, Marloiv, and 
elsewhere in Shakespeare. — In Macbeth and Henry VIII, Shakes, has 
play the woman, i.e. weep. In Mer. of Venice, "the painter plays the 
spider," etc. — 11. boson. With Knight and White we here reproduce 
the orig. folio reading. ' This coarse flippant man,' Antonio, is supposed 
to shorten, sailor-like, boatswain to boson. Dyce, Furness, and others 
think the unsettled state of our early orthography sufficiently accounts 
for the 'boson.' — 13. assist the storm. How? — In Pericles, III, i, 19, we 

1 " Oft listening how the hounds and horn 
Cheerly rouse the slumbering Morn." 

—Milton's V Allegro, 53, 54. 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. . 27 

Gonzalo. Nay, good, be patient. 

Boatswain. When the sea is. Hence ! What cares these 
roarers for the name of king ? To cabin ! Silence ! trouble 
us not. yi 

Gonzalo. Good, yet remember whom thou hast aboard. 

Boatswain. None that I love more than myself. You are 
a counsellor ; if you can command these elements to silence, 
and work the peace of the present, we will not hand a rope 
more. Use your authority ; if you cannot, give thanks you 
have lived so long, and make yourself ready in your cabin 
for the mischance of the hour, if it so hap. — Cheerly, good 
hearts ! — Out of our way, I say. [Exit. 

Gonzalo. I have great comfort from this fellow : methinks 
he hath no drowning mark upon him ; his complexion is per- 
fect gallows. Stand fast, good Fate, to his hanging ! Make 
the rope of his destiny our cable, for our own doth little ad- 
vantage ! If he be not born to be hanged, our case is mis- 
erable. [Exeunt. 

have, "Do not assist the storm."— 14. good. See line 3. — 15. Hence! 
The energetic brevity and bluntness of the boatswain are quite refreshing, 
as he orders king, duke, counsellor, etc., out of his way. We are quite 
in love with him. cares. Sailor blunder for care ? " When the subject 
is as yet future . . . the third person singular might be regarded as the 
normal inflection." Abbott, 335. See I, ii, 477; IV, i, 259. — So it is in 
Greek? — Old plural in 5? — 16. roarers. 'Roarer' was a slang term 
for blustering bully ?— See scene ii, 2. — To cabin ! Shakes, very often 
omits the; but there is a special propriety in brevitv here. See on line 15. 

— Abbott, 90. — 18. Good. See on line 3. — 21. of the present. In Jul. 
Cses., I, ii, 161, we have for this present ; in Macbeth, I, v, 55, this igno- 
rant present. So in Prayer Book, and in 1 Corinth., xv, 6. — hand. In 
Winter's Tale, II, iii, 62, hand = lay hostile hands on. —24. hap. Used 
by Shakes, as verb and noun. — 25. Out of our way. "I have great 
comfort from this fellow" — a genuine old 'salt'! — 26. I have great 
comfort, etc. "Gonzalo, the only good man with the king, is the only 
man that preserves his cheerfulness on the wreck and his hope on the 
island." Coleridge. — 27. no drowning mark. See V, i, 217, 218. In 
Two Gentlemen of V., I, i, 140, 141, we read of the ship, 

" Which cannot perish having thee ahoard, 
Being destined to a drier death on shore." 

— complexion = nature, native bent, aptitude [Hudson]? external ap- 
pearance [Schmidt, Rolfe]? external appearance as indicative of disposi- 
tion, character [Deighton] ? constitution, or temperament, as shown by 
the outward appearance [Wright] ? — See our ed. of Julius C, I, ii, 127. — 

28. gallows. Adjective, as in * gallows-bird ' ? — perfect gallows, like 
' perfect Richard,' in King John, I, i, 90. — A. S. galga, a cross, gibbet. — 

29, 30. doth = causeth, worketh? or is the word an auxiliary? — advan- 
tage = profit (received), gain? yield profit, benefit? See our note on 
the dram of eale, in our ed. of Hamlet, I, iv, 36. — Two Gent. Ver., Ill, ii, 
42; Sonnet, cxxxii, 8. 



28 • THE TEMPEST. [act i. 



Enter Boatswain. 

Boatswain. Down with the topmast ! yare ! lower, lower ! 
Bring her to try wi' the main-course. \_A cry within.'] A plague 

upon this howling ! they are louder than the weather 

or our office. — 35 

Enter Sebastian, Antonio, and Gonzalo. 

Yet again ! what do you here ? Shall we give o'er, and 
drown ? Have you a mind to sink ? 

Sebastian. A plague o' your throat, you bawling, blasphe- 
mous, incharitable dog ! 

Boatswain. Work you, then. 40 

Antonio. Hang, cur ! hang, you insolent noise-maker ! We 
are less afraid to be drowned than thou art. 

Gonzalo. I'll warrant him for drowning, though the ship 
were no stronger than a nutshell. 

Boatswain. Lay her a-hold, a-hold! Set her two courses. 
Off to sea again ; lay her off. 



32. Down with the topmast = " Strike or lower the topmast down 
to the cap, as it holds wind and retards the ship ; evidently the main top- 
mast, as only one is mentioned." Gapt. E. K. Calver, of the Royal Navy. 
The ships of the Elizabethan age had usually no topmast. Lord Mulgrave 
says, " The striking of the topmasts was a new invention in Shakespeare's 
time." — lower = lower away the topmast? — 33. Bring her to try 
wi' the main-course = see if she will hear the main-course (i.e., 
mainsail), and whether it will be sufficient [Capt. Calver]? "'To try 
with the main-course ' was a technical term for keeping close-hauled, and 
beating up into the eye of the wind when there was too strong a breeze 
blowing for a ship to carry her topsail." Phillpotts. — ' Try (or tried) 
with the main-course ' is found in Capt. John Smith's Sea Grammar (1627), 
Hakluyt's Voyages (1598), and Raleigh's (i.e., Sir "Walter Raleigh's) Works 
(describing a voyage in 1597) . — A ship's ' courses ' are her largest lower 
sails, " which contribute most to give her way through the water, and 

enable her to feel her helm and steer her course." Holt. — A plague . 

The long dash after ' plague ' in the folio perhaps indicates some profanity 
or blasphemy. See 38, 39 ; V, i, 218. — 34. weather = storm ? — 35. office 
= official calls or commands ? 

36. Yet again! —The boatswain is justly impatient? — 39. inchari- 
table. Shakes, uses quite indiscriminately the prefix un- or in-. — Abbott, 
442. — 41. you whoreson, insolent. Sailors are just as coarse to-day. 
— 43. for drowning = in respect to drowning [Wright, Hudson] ? either 
as regards or against [Abbott, Rolfe, Meiklejohn, Deighton, Phillpotts]? 
— See Gonzalo's previous speech about drowning. — 45. Lay her a-hold 
= keep her to the wind, or as close to the wind as possible, so as to hold 
or keep to it ? — two courses = foresail and mainsail ? See on 33. — The 
folio reads, " Lay her a hold, a hold, set her two courses off to sea againe, 
lay her off." Capell retains this reading; but John Holt (1749) and all 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 29 



Enter Mariners wet. 

Mariners. All lost ! to prayers, to prayers ! all lost ! 

Boatswain. What ! must our mouths be cold ? 

Gonzalo. The king and prince at prayers ! Let's assist 
them, 
For our case is as theirs. 

Sebastian. I'm out of patience. 50 

Antonio. We are merely cheated of our lives by drunk- 
ards. — 
This wide-chapp'd rascal, — would thou mightst lie drowning 
The washing of ten tides ! 

Gonzalo. He'll be hang'd yet, 

Though every drop of water swear against it, 
And gape at wid'st to glut him. 

subsequent editors, except Capell, punctuate thus: "Lay her a hold, a 
hold; set her two courses; oft' to sea again; lay her off" — "it being a 
command," says Holt, " to set these two larger sails in order to carry her 
off to sea again, she being too near the shore. To ' lay her a hold ' signi- 
fies to bring her to lie as near the wind as she can, in order to get clear of 
any points, or head of land." 

48. must our mouths be cold = must we drown [Deighton] ? drink 
sea-water instead of ardent spirits [Birch] ? must we die [Rolfe, Furness] ? 
— Their mouths had been pretty hot? See V, i, 218, 219. — ' Mortify- 
ing groans' cool the heart, Mer. of Yen., I, i, 82. Allen thinks 'cold 
orisons' ('cowardly prayers') are contrasted with 'brave oaths,' as 
Beaumont and Fletcher have it in The Sea Voyage, I, i, an imitation of 
The Tempest. In I, ii, 220-222, sighs cool the air. 

"Thou rascal, thou fearful rogue, thou hast been praying ! . . . 
To discourage our friends with your cold orisons ? " 

Phillpotts interprets thus: "You go to prayers; we'll stave some of the 
puncheons of liquor to warm our mouths." Hence Antonio, lines 51, 52, 
calls them drunkards. This interpretation would emphasize ourf — See 
'red-hot with drinking,' in IV, i, 171.— 51. merely = simply ? barely? 
absolutely? Lat. mer us = pure, unmixed. — Shakes, often uses 'mere' 
and ' merely ' in the sense of absolute, absolutely, as in Hamlet, I, ii, 137. 
So Bacon, Essay 58. —52. wide-chapp'd (wide-chopped) = opening the 
mouth wide [Schmidt, Meiklejohn] ?— "Men with wide chops are weak 
and doltish." Croft. "As he opens his jaws to drink now, so may he 
have to drink the sea-water! " Phillpotts. Do not lines 34, 38, 41, and 
V, i, 218-220, suggest that it is his clamor, his open-mouthed shouting, that 
gives him the epithet? — The washing of ten tides = while ten tides 
ebb and flow ? — Allusion to singular mode of execution of pirates in Eng- 
land in the olden time — hanged on the shore at low-water mark, there to 
remain till three tides had overflowed them ? Cited by Elze from Harri- 
son's Description of England.— Like "I would have him nine years 
a-killing," Othello, IV, i, 166.— 53, 54, Gonzalo still believes "He that's 
born to" be hanged will never be drowned "!— 55. glut. Latin glutire, 
to swallow ; gula, throat. Milton uses glutted, for swallowed, Par. Lost, 



30 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. 

[A confused noise within. ' Mercy on us ! ' — 

' We split, we split ! ' — i Farewell, my wife and children ! ' — 
' Farewell, brother ! ' — 'We split, we split, we split ! ' — ] 57 

Antonio. Let's all sink with, the king. [Exit. 

Sebastian. Let's take leave of him. [Exit. 

Gonzalo. ^ow would I give a thousand furlongs of sea for 
an acre of barren ground ; long heath, brown furze, any thing. 
The wills above be done ! but I would fain die a dry death. 

[Exit 

x, 633. — 61. long heath, brown furze. Hanmer (1744) changed this 
to ling, heath, broom, furz. The change is approved toy Farmer, Sidney- 
Walker, Dyce, Wright, Hudson, Deighton, Phillpotts, etc. But Furness 
says as follows: "The insurmountable difficulty in accepting Hanmer 's 
change is, to me, that ' Long Heath ' is the real name of a plant, just as 
much as is ' Long Purples.' " He quotes from Lyte's Herbal, 1576 : " There 
is in this country two kinds of Heath ; one which toeareth his flowers alongst 
the stems, and is called 'Long Heath.' " Furness adds: "In Hanmer's 
emendation the four names really represent only two plants. ... In 
Shakespeare's time, as witness Lyte, ' ling ' and ' heath ' were the same, 
and ' furz ' and ' broom ' the same. Such a mere bare iteration, without 
adding anything whatsoever to the picture, grates me as somewhat un- 
Shakespearian. 

Why is this scene mainly prose ? — Why any tolank verse ? — What pict- 
ures are in the word-painting ? — How did Shakespeare get his knowledge 
of technical sailor language and of the proper management of a ship ? — 
What development thus far of characters ? — What lesson is taught as to 
artificial rank ? — Name from memory the successive positions of the ships 
and expedients resorted to. 

Lord Mulgrave, a distinguished officer in the British naval service, com- 
municated to Malone the following analysis of the succession of events in 
managing the ship, the orders given, etc., in the first scene: — 

1st Position. 1st Position. 

Fall to 't yarely, or we run ourselves Land discovered under the lee ; the 

aground. wind blowing too fresh to haul upon a 

wind with the topsail set. The first 
command is a notice to be ready to ex- 
ecute any orders briskly. 

2d Position. 2d Position. 

Yare, yare, take in the topsail ; blow The topsail is taken in. The danger in 

till thou burst thy wind, if room enough. a good sea-boat is only from being too 

near the land : this is introduced here to 
account for the next order. 

3d Position. 3d Position. 

Down with the topmast. Yare, lower, The gale increasing, the topmast is 

lower; bring her to try with the main struck, to take the weight from aloft, 
course. make the ship drift less to leeward, and 

bear the mainsail under which the ship is 
laid to. 
4th Position. 4th Position. 

Lay her a-hold, a-hold ; set her two The ship, having driven near the shore, 

courses, off to sea again, lay her off. the mainsail is hauled up ; the ship wore, 

and the two courses set on the other tack, 
to endeavor to clear the land that way. 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 31 

Scene II. The Island. Before Prosperous Cell. 

Enter Prospero and Miranda. 

Miranda. If by your art, my clearest father, you have 
Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them. 
The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, 
But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, 
Dashes the fire out. 0, I have suffer'd 
With those that I saw suffer ! A brave vessel, 
Who had, no doubt, some noble creature in her, 
Dash'd all to pieces. 0, the cry did knock 



5th Position. 5th Position. 

We split, we split. The ship, not able to weather a point, 

is driven on shore. 

Grey (in Critical, Historical, and Explanatory Notes), 1754, and Maginn 
(in Fraser's Magazine) , 1839, call attention to extraordinary resemblances 
between tbis scene and the description of the tempest in Rabelais, Book 
IV, xviii-xxii, which had not been translated into English in Shakespeare's 
time. 

Scene II. Prospero is not Shakespeare, but the play is, in a certain 
measure, autobiographical. ... It shows us, more than anything else, 
what the discipline of life had made of Shakespeare at fifty, — a fruit too 
fully matured to be suffered to hang much longer on the tree. Conscious 
superiority untinged by arrogance, genial scorn for the mean and base, 
mercifulness into which contempt enters very largely, serenity excluding 
passionate affection while admitting tenderness, intellect overtopping 
morality, but in no way blighting or perverting it, — such are the mental 
features of him in whose development the man of the world had kept pace 
with the poet, and avIio now shone as the consummate example of both. — 
Garnett's Irving Shakespeare, 1890. 

4. welkin's. A. S. wolken, a cloud. — " Like a jewel in the ear of ccelo, 
the sky, the welkin, the heaven," Love's Lab. L., IV, ii, 5. — cheek. 
Shakespeare is fond of this personification. " The cloudy cheeks of heaven," 
Richard II, III, iii, 56. — 5. Dashes. In Mer. of Venice, II, vii, 44, 45, we 
read of 

" The watery kingdom whose ambitious head 
Spits in the face of heaven." 

See Pericles, III, i, 1-6. —fire. Dissyllable? The first ' fire ' is such in 
Julius C, III, i, 172, — 

" As, fire drives o\\t fire, so pity — pity 
Hath done this deed on Caesar." 

— Abbott, 480, says, "Fear, dear, fire, hour, your, four, and other mono- 
syllables ending in r or re, preceded by a long vowel or diphthong, are 
frequently pronounced (in Shakespeare) as dissyllables." —6. brave. 
Armoric brav, fine; Scotch braio, handsome. Ill, ii, 99. Milton (Sam- 
son Agonistes, 717) uses 'bravery' in the sense of splendor, fine dress. 
So Shakes, and Bacon. —7. Who = which. — The ship is thought of as a 
person [Wright, Meiklejohn, etc.] ? — creature. Collective here [Fur- 



32 THE TEMPEST. [act I. 

Against my very heart ! Poor souls, they perish' d ! 

Had I been any god of power, I would 10 

Have sunk the sea within the earth, or ere 

It should the good ship so have swallow'd and 

The fraughting souls within her. 

Prospero. Be collected ; 

No more amazement. Tell your piteous heart 
There's no harm done. 

Miranda. 0, woe the day ! 

Prospero. No harm. 

I have done nothing but in care of thee, 
Of thee, my dear one, thee, my daughter, who 
Art ignorant of what thou art, nought knowing 
Of whence I am, nor that I am more better 
Than Prospero, master of a full poor cell, 20 

And thy no greater father. 

Miranda. More to know 

Did never meddle with my thoughts. 

Prospero. 'Tis time 

I should inform thee farther. Lend thy hand, 
And pluck my magic garment from me. — So. 
Lie there, my art. — Wipe thou thine eyes ; have comfort. 
The direful spectacle of the wrack, which touch' d 
The very virtue of compassion in thee, 

ness] ? — 10. of power = powerful ? — 11. or ere = before ever? See 
Ecclesiastes, xii, 6. — Ere is added to or for emphasis [Msetz., iii, 451; 
Abbott, 131; Wright, Rolfe, Furness, etc.]? " Or, in this sense, is a cor- 
ruption of A. S. ser (Eng. ere) = before." Abbott. Like ' very, very,' 
' verily, verily.' See V, i, 103; also our ed. of Macbeth, IV, iii, 173, and 
our Hamlet, I, ii, 147. — 13. fraughting. Cotgrave's French and Eng. 
Dictionary (1632) defines freter, ' to hire a ship of -burden, and to fraught 
or load her, hired ; ' also ' freture, a fraughting, loading, or furnishing of 
a (hired) ship.' — Swed. fraJct; Dan. fragt, a cargo ; fragte, to freight. — 
Mer. of Venice, II, viii, 30, has ' a vessel of our country, richly fraught.' — 
15. woe the day = woe to the day? — 19. Of whence. Redundancy? 
— more better. Double comparatives and superlatives for greater em- 
phasis are frequent in Shakes. See line 438; Mer. of Ven., IV, i, 242. — 
20. full poor. See line 155; also 395.-22. meddle with = trouble 
= mix with [Stevens, Meiklejohn, Deighton] ? mingle with, interfere 
with [Collier, Rolfe, Ritson] ? 

24. So. Spoken in soliloquy ? to Miranda [Furness] ? — 25. Lie there, 
my art. "At night, when he put off his gown, he used to say, 'Lie 
there, my Lord Treasurer.' " So says Thomas Fuller, in his Holy State 
(1642), of Lord Burleigh. — 26. wrack. Always so spelled in Shake- 
speare. See Macbeth, our ed., I, iii, 114. "White remarks that "A delicate 
ear will perceive that something is lost in point of melody by the uncalled- 
for change of 'wrack' to wreck." — 27. virtue = the most efficacious 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 33 

I have with such provision in mine art 

So safely order'd, that there is no soul — 

No, not so much perdition as an hair 30 

Betid to any creature in the vessel 

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink. Sit down ; 

For thou must now know farther. 

Miranda. You have often 

Begun to tell me what I am, but stopp'd 
And left me to a bootless inquisition, 
Concluding, — ' Stay : not yet.' 

Prospero. The hour's now come ; 

The very minute bids thee ope thine ear : 
Obey, and be attentive. Canst thou remember 
A time before we came unto this cell ? 

I do not think thou canst, for then thou wast not 40 

Out three years old. 

Miranda. Certainly, sir, I can. 

Prospero. By what ? by any other house or person ? 
Of any thing the image tell me that 
Hath kept with thy remembrance. 

Miranda. 'Tis far off, 

And rather like a dream than an assurance 
That my remembrance warrants. Had I not 
Four or five women once that tended me ? 

Prospero. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But how is it 
That this lives in thy mind ? What seest thou else 
In the dark backward and abysm of time ? 50 



part — the energetic quality [Johnson]? essence, soul [Rolfe] ? — 28. pro- 
vision. Dyce, quoting II, i, 295, changes this to 'prevision.' Why is 
' provision ' better or worse ? — 29. soul. For ' soul,' Theobald suggested 
foyle; Capell, loss; Kenrick, ill; Holt, soyl {i.e. soil), approved by Dr. 
Johnson; Rowe, Pope, Hanmer, and Warburton, soul lost; Bailey, evil; 
Gould, hurte. The recent critics prefer, with Heath and Stevens, to regard 
the construction as an anacoluthon. The syntax seems designedly imper- 
fect ; but the word perdition, literally loss, makes the sense clear. — 30. 
hair. " The tithe of a hair was never lost in my house before," 1 Henry 
IV, III, iii, 53, 54. —31. Betid. A. S. tidan, to happen ; Mid. Eng. be- or 
M-, causing. Be- gives a transitive force. — 32. Which . . . which. 
Distribute. 

35. bootless. A. S. hot = profit. — inquisition. Lat. in. into ; quserere, 
to seek; inquisitio, inquiry. — 41. Out = beyond? out of? past [Abbott]? 
fully ? quite ? — 47. tended. See line 6, sc. i. — 50. backward. So ' inward ' 
in Sonnet cxxviii, and Meets, for Meets., Ill, ii, 117, and 'outward' in Son-, 
net lxix, are nouns. — abysm, Old French abysme, French abime; from 
Greek ajWo-o?, abussos, bottomless ; fr. a privative, and /Svo-o-os, sea-bottom. 



34 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. 

If thou remember'st aught ere thou cam'st here, 
How thou cam'st here thou mayst. 

Miranda. But that I do not. 

Prospero. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year since, 
Thy father was the Duke of Milan and 
A prince of power. 

Miranda. Sir, are not you my father ? 

Prospero. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and 
She said thou wast my daughter ; and thy father 
Was Duke of Milan ; and his only heir 
And princess no worse issued. 

Miranda. the heavens ! 

What foul play had we, that we came from thence ? 60 

Or blessed was 't we did. 

Prospero. Both, both, my girl ; 

By foul play, as thou say'st, were we heav'd thence, 
But blessedly holp hither. 

Miranda. 0, my heart bleeds 

To think o' the teen that I have turn'd you to, 
Which is from my remembrance ! Please you, farther. 

— 53. Twelve year. "In the older stages of the language, year, goat, 
swine, etc., being neuter nouns, underwent no change in the nominative 
case of the plural number." Morris and Skeat. — The first ' year 'in this 
line is said to have the force of a dissyl. But is a dissyllable really neces- 
sary ? The line has five accents without such splitting of ' year.' May we 
scan thus ? 

Twelve | year since | Miran | da, twelve | year since. 

Abbott (480) marks thus : — 

Twelve ye ! ar since | Miran | da twelve | year since. 

Fumess well remarks, " By such a division and prolongation of ' year ' an 
emphasis is imparted which does not befit the sense." — 55. Sir. Respect- 
ful? Note that in this dialogue Miranda says you, Prospero says thou. 
Inference ? — 56. piece of virtue = sample or perfect specimen of virtue 
[Wright] ? model, masterpiece, of virtue [Rolfe] ? a portion of virtue itself 

— In Ant. and Cleop., Augustus Caesar calls his sister Octavia ' a piece of 
virtue.' — 58. And princess. The folio has a semicolon after, princess. 
Hence, Pope changed and to a. Many editors have adopted this emenda- 
tion ; but by erasing the semicolon we, perhaps, avoid the need of other 
change. Hanmer prints ' thou his only heir.' " No worse issued was his 
only heir and princess." Fumess, after Knight. Judgment on these 
changes? — 63. holp. Shakespeare uses holp 19 times; helped, 6. — 
Abbott, 343. — In Luke, i, 54, we read " He hath holpen his servant Israel." 
The tendency in Shakespeare's age was to drop the -en. 

64. teen (A. S. teona, injury, wrong; accusation) = grief , sorrow, 
trouble? — 65. f rom = away from [Rolfe, Wright]? out of [Phillpotts] ? 
quite gone from [Meiklejohn] ? In Julius Cses., II, i, 196, we have ' Quite 
from the main opinion he held once.' So Macbeth, our ed., Ill, i, 99, 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 35 

Prospero. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd Antonio, — 
I pray thee, mark me, — that a brother should 
Be so perfidious ! — he whom, next thyself, 
Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put 
The manage of my state ; as at that time 70 

Through all the signiories it was the first, 
And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed 
In dignity, and, for the liberal arts, 
Without a parallel ; those being all my study, 
The government I cast upon my brother, 
And to my state grew stranger, being transported 
And rapt in secret studies. — Thy false uncle — 
Dost thou attend me ? 

Miranda. Sir, most needfully. 

Prospero. Being once perfected how to grant suits, 
How to deny them, who to advance, and who 80 

To trash for overtopping, new created 

131 ; and iv, 36.-67. My brother, and thy uncle. Note here the long 
parenthesis extending from line 67 to Thy false uncle, line 77. Thoughts 
crowd upon his brain faster than his tongue can formulate them ? Point 
out the anacolutha. — 70. manage. A technical term from horsemanship ? 
So in 1 Henry IV, II, iii, 45, Met. of Ven., Ill, iv, 25. — as = the fact being? 
— I call him perfidious because of what I am about to say. — as at that 
time = because then? Prof. G. Allen (Phila. Sh. Soc, 1861) in a very 
learned note argues strongly that the phrase ' as at that time ' means almost 
or exactly then, the 'as ' being redundant. He quotes 'as at this time,' 
which he says means now in the Prayer Book; thus: "Almighty God, 
who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and 
as at this time to be born," etc. —71. " Milan claims to be the first Duchy 
in Europe." Bolero (1630) . — signiories = states of northern Italy owing 
feudal obedience to the Holy Roman Empire. — Lat. senior, elder ; Mediaeval 
Latin, senior, lord; French seigneur, Ital. signior, a lord. — The Visconti 
of Milan were perpetual vicars of the Emperor in Italy. Robertson's 
Charles V. — arts = arts becoming a gentleman, tending to improve the 
mind [Schmidt] ? — Technically the Lat. artes liberates were, in the Middle 
Ages, grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astron- 
omy. In more recent times, history, philosophy, and those other branches 
usually required for the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Master of Arts, are 
included. 

76. state = dignity ? pomp? political body governed, body politic 
[Schmidt]? — 77. rapt. Lat. rapere, to seize, snatch away. — 80. who. 
" There is no doubt that ' who ' was in Shakespeare's time frequently used 
for the objective case, as it still is colloquially." Clark & Wright. 
Abbott, 274. See line 231; IV, i, 4. — 81. trash for overtopping. '" A 
blending of metaphors. ' Trash ' refers to hunting, and ' overtop ' to gar- 
dening, or, at least, it cannot refer to hunting." Furness. 'Trash' is 
denned by Schmidt, to lop, to crop. So Warburton and Steevens. White 
says " 'trash' was hunting slang." Staunton says, "In the present day 
sportsmen check the speed of very fleet hounds by tying a rope, called a 
'dog-trash,' round their necks, and letting them trail it," etc. — Icel. 



36 THE TEMPEST, [ACT I. 

The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd 'em, 

Or else new form'cl 'em ; having both the key 

Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state 

To what tune pleas'd his ear, that now he was 

The ivy which had hid my princely trunk, 

And suck'd my verdure out on 't. — Thou attend' st not. 

Miranda. 0, good sir, I do ! 

Prospero. I pray thee, mark me. 

I, thus neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated 
To closeness and the bettering of my mind 90 

With that which, but by being so retir'd, 
O'er-priz'd all popular rate, in my false brother 

tros, rubbish, leaves and twigs picked up and used for fuel ; Norw. tros, 
fallen twigs, half-rotten branches easily broken. — ' Trash ' means crash- 
ings ; i.e., bits cracked off. Skeat. — Shakes, turns nouns at will into verbs. 
If the metaphor suggests trees or plants, then the tallest, the one overtop- 
ping, is not cut off, but trashed, i.e., its top beaten down or broken into 
twigs and dry branches, etc.? — If the metaphor suggests hunting dogs, 
then overtopping is outstripping? Visiting the Edinburgh High School in 
1882, the present editor repeatedly heard the master call the boy at the 
head of his class the ' top boy ' ! — Choose between these interpretations ! 
There's vegetation enough in lines 86, 87. But see Othello, II, i, 290; Ant. 
and Cleop., IV, xii, 23, 24 ; and Furness. — 83. key = tuning-fork [Phill- 
potts] ? tuning-key for the harpsichord, etc. [Wright, Rolfe, Hudson, etc.] ? 
" I think the first and obvious meaning is the same as when we speak of 
the ' keys of office ' ; then, secondly, by the association of ideas, this ' key ' 
suggested the 'time' which follows." Furness. Choose! — 84. Of officer, 
etc. Abbott, 497, marks desperately for scanning, thus : — 

Of offic | er, and off | ice set | all hearts | in the (i' th) state. 

Well? See on lines 103, 165. — 85. that = so that ? Bacon in his Assays 
uses 'that' six or seven times for 'so that.' Abbott, 283. — 86, 87. ivy 
. . . suck'd. The ivy was supposed parasitic. Erroneously? See Ella- 
combe's Plant Lore of Shakespeare.— hid my princely trunk, "I 
recollect hearing a traveller of poetic temperament expressing the kind of 
horror he felt in beholding on the banks of the Missouri an oak of pro- 
digious size, which had been in a manner overpowered by an enormous 
wild grape-vine. The vine had clasped its huge folds round the trunk, and 
from thence had wound about every branch and twig, until the mighty 
tree had withered in its embrace. It seemed like Laocoon struggling inef- 
fectually in the hideous coils of the monster Python." Irving. — 87. on 't. 
Often Shakes, uses on for of. Abbott, 182. So, now, in rapid familiar 
conversation ? Allowable ? 

89. I, thus, etc. Scan. — dedicated. Shakes, often omits the -d or 
-ed after the t sound. See on line 148. — Abbott, 342.— 90. closeness = 
privacy, retirement, seclusion? In Luke, ix, 36; Macbeth, III, v, 7, and 
elsewhere in the Bible and Shakespeare, 'close' = secret. — Lat. claudere, 
to shut ; clausum, an enclosed place ; French cloitre ; Eng. cloister. 
91. but by being, etc. = were it only for the retirement it procured me 
[Rolfe, Phillpotts] ? except for the fact that they were so retired, or that I 
was so retired [Wright, Deighton, Meiklejohn, Hudson] ? — 92. O'er-prized 
= surpassed in value?— Lat. prelum, price.— rate = estimation? esteem? 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 37 

Awak'd an evil nature ; and my trust, 

Like a good parent, did beget of him 

A falsehood, in it's contrary as great 

As my trust was ; which had indeed no limit, 

A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded, 

Not only with what my revenue yielded, 

But what my power might else exact — like one 

Who having into truth, by telling of it, 100 

Made such a sinner of his memory, 

To credit his own lie — he did believe 

He was indeed the duke, out o ? the substitution, 

And executing the outward face of royalty, 

With all prerogative ; hence his ambition ' 

Growing, — dost thou hear ? 

Does it mean that the value was greater than any of the people would have 
thought ? or greater than popular applause or esteem would have been to 
him? — See II, i, 106. — 93. Awak'd. Shakes, uses this and never ' awoke,' 
nor ' woke.' Note the continual personification. — 91. good parent, etc. 
See the Latin adage, Heroum filii noxse, ' heroes' sons no good ! ' The 
Greek proverb is substantially the same ! So, aforetime, " Ministers' sons 
and deacons' daughters " ! — 95. it's. See line 392. — Its was just coming 
into use. The folio (1623) has ' its ' once ; ' it's ' 9 times ; ' it,' in a posses- 
sive sense, 11 times. King James's version of the Bible (1611) uses 'its' 
once [Levit., xxv, 5) ; Milton (1608-1674), 3 times; Florio's translation of 
Montaigne (1598), quite often. — contrary = opposite (nature) [Wright]? 
— 97. sans. Lat. sine, without ; Old Fr. sens ; Fr. sans. The poets tried 
hard to naturalize in England this convenient monosyllable. Thus Shakes, 
in As You Like It, II, vii, 166: 'Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans 
everything.' — lorded = made a lord [Rolfe]? invested with lordship 
[Phillpotts] ? invested as a lord [Deighton] ? invested with the dignity and 
power of a lord [Wright] ? — 98. revenue. Shakes, places the accent 
sometimes on the first and sometimes on the second syllable of this 
word. 

100. into truth. ' Into ' here has been changed to ' unto ' by Warburton 
(1747) and nearly all subsequent editors, including among others Knight, 
Singer, White, Phillpotts, Rolfe, Hudson, Wright, and Meiklejohn; and 
their comments have been voluminous and vast. See Furness. "Shake- 
speare's own words, which all understand, are vastly to be preferred to any 
modification, which, however acceptable to him who proposes it, appears 
to be incomprehensible to all others." Furness. — Interpret thus : Having, 
by telling his lie (often), made his memory such a sinner (as to realities), 
that he credited his own lie into truth (i.e., really believed his lie to be 
true), he believed he was, etc. — 102. To credit his own lie into truth. So 
Dr. South says, "Vice can never be praised into virtue." Sermons, ed. 
1744. Supply as before to? Abbott, 281. — 103. He was indeed. It is 
hard to scan this line without making it an Alexandrine (twelve-syllabled), 
whereat Procrustean critics are greatly distressed. See on lines 83, 165. 
The fact is, Shakespeare was under no obligation to please the grammarians 
and prosodists of his own time, much less of subsequent ages. — 104. face. 
Latin fades, the shape, form, appearance; facere, to make. — 105. pre- 
rogative (Lat. prse, before ; rogare, to ask ; prserogativus, one who is 



38 THE TEMPEST. [act I. 

Miranda. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. 

Prospero. To have no screen between this part he play'd 
And him he play'd it for, he needs will be 
Absolute Milan. Me, poor man ! — my library 
Was dukedom large enough. Of temporal royalties no 

He thinks me now incapable ; confederates — 
So dry he was for sway — wi' the King of Naples 
To give him annual tribute, do him homage, 
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend 
The dukedom yet unbow'd — alas, poor Milan ! — 
To most ignoble stooping. 

Miranda. the heavens ! 

Prospero. Mark his condition, and the event; then tell 
me 
If this might be a brother. 

Miranda. I should sin 

To think but nobly of my grandmother. 

Prosp>ero. Now the condition. 120 

This king of Naples, being an enemy 
To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit ; 
Which was, that he, in lieu o' the premises, 
Of homage and I know not how much tribute, 
Should presently extirpate me and mine 

asked his opinion first) = special privilege ? pre-eminent right hy reason of 
office or position? Scan. 

106. sir. Line 55. — 107. screen. Meaning Prospero [Daniel]? — 
108. him = Antonio himself? — All was in Prospero's name, Antonio 
toeing the - power hehind the throne greater than the throne ' ? Antonio 
would not have even a nominal duke, Prospero, between him and ' the 
outward face of royalty' — between the assumed role and the reality? 
— 109. Milan. Putting the name of the country or state for that of its 
ruler? Accent?— me. Abbott, 201. — 111. confederates. Lat. con, to- 
gether, with, foidus, foederis, a league, compact. In Henry VIII, I, ii, 3, 
' confederacy ' = conspiracy, plot. — 112. dry = thirsty ? 

117. condition = terms of compact with the King of Naples ? — situa- 
tion? — event. Lat. e, out, venire, to come. — 118. might = could? 
Abbott, 312. — 119. hut nohly — merely nobly? otherwise than notoly ? 
— Abbott, 122. —Is there here a subtle transfer of the quality of nobleness 
from its proper object to the process of thinking ? Express the idea in plain 
prose. — 120. good wombs have borne had sons. Shakespeare might 
have thought of 'Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother.'— 122. hearkens 
. . . suit. So 'listening their fear,' Macbeth, II, ii, 28; 'listen great 
things,' Jxdius C, IV, i, 41, etc. ; Comus, 169. — Abbott, 129. — 123. lieu. 
Lat. locus, Fr. lieu, place. See our ed. of As You L. I., II, iii, 65. — 
premises. Lat. prse, before ; mittere, to send ; pr&missum, thing al- 
ready stated or premised.— In lieu of the premises. Technical phraseol- 
ogy? of logic? of law? — See In lieu whereof, Mer. of Ven., IV, i, 401. — 
125. presently = immediately ? Often so in Shakes. See our ed. of 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 39 

Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan, 

With all the honors, on my brother ; whereon, 

A treacherous army levied, one midnight 

Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open 

The gates of Milan ; and, i' the dead of darkness, 130 

The ministers for the purpose hurried thence 

Me and thy crying self. 

Miranda, Alack, for pity ! 

I, not remembering how I cried out then, 
Will cry it o'er again ; it is a hint 
That wrings my eyes to 't. 

Prospero. Hear a little further, 

And then I'll bring thee to the present business 
Which now's upon 's ; without the which this story 
Were most impertinent. 

Miranda. Wherefore did they not 

That hour destroy us ? 

Prospero. Well demanded, wench ; 

My tale provokes that question. Dear, they durst not, 140 
So dear the love my people bore me, nor set 
A mark so bloody on the business, but 
With colors fairer painted their foul ends. 
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark, 
Bore us some leagues to sea, where they prepar'd 
A rotten carcass of a butt, not rigg'd, 
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast ; the very rats 
Instinctively have quit it. There they hoist us, 

Hamlet, II, ii, 578. — 131. ministers. Lat. minister, servant; minor, 
less? So master is from Lat. magis, more ; magister, master. —134. hint 
== suggestion? allusion? subject? cause? motive? — Dan. ymte, to whis- 
per. The meaning is affected by O. Eng. henten, fr. A. S. hentan, to catch, 
seize. Wore. — 138. impertinent. Lat. in, not ; pertinere, to pertain to, 
concern, be relevant. 

139. wench. A. S. loencle, a maid? wancol, 'tottery,' shaky. The 
word was used to express fondness, with joking good-natured, simulated 
contempt ; like ' little rogue ' ! — 144. In few. So Hamlet, I, iii, 126, etc. 
— Lat. idiom? Lat.pawm (verbis) = in few (words). —146. butt. The 
folio has ' Butt.' Many, including White, Hudson, and Rolfe, have cbanged 
it to 'boat,' following Dryden's version and Rowe (1709). But a butt is 
perhaps the Italian botto, defined as a 'galliot,' the hull having 'very 
rounded ribs, very little run (nautical), and flatfish bottom, the ribs join- 
ing the keel almost horizontally, a sort of tub of a thing.' Nicholson, ap- 
proved by Fumess.—Vfe venture to suggest another interpretation as 
follows : Prospero is speaking in strong disgust, and he uses ' butt ' simply 
in contempt, as sailors use tub or scow. A. S. byt, a cask. — 148. have 
quit. In his vivid poetic imagination he lives over again the experience 



40 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. 

To cry to the sea that roar'd to us ; to sigh 

To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again, 150 

Did us but loving wrong. 

Miranda. Alack, what trouble 

Was I then to you ! 

Prospero. 0, a cherubin 

Thou wast, that did preserve me ! Thou didst smile, 
Infused with a fortitude from heaven, 
When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt, 
Under my burthen groan'd ; which rais'd in me 
An undergoing stomach, to bear up 
Against what should ensue. 

Miranda. How came we ashore ? 

Prospero. By Providence divine 
Some food we had and some fresh water that 160 

of that dreadful night ; the past is again present, and he says ' have quit ' ! 
But many of the prosy commentators change have to 'had'! — See the 
present for the past in line 205. — See ' Vision ' in the treatises on rhetoric. 

— quit. See on ' dedicated,' line 89. — hoist. This may be for ' hoisted ' ? 

— Ill, i, 10; Abbott, 341, 312.— 152. cherubin. Shakes, uses 'cherub' in 
Hamlet, IV, iii, 47 ; and ' cherubins ' as the plural in Mer. of Venice, V, i, 
62, etc. — 155. deck'd = sprinkled (for ' degged ') [Collier, Malone, Staun- 
ton, Singer, Dyce, White, Rolfe, Wright, Deighton, Phillpotts] ? covered 
[Heath, Schmidt, Johnson, Meiklejohn] ? adorned [Holt] ? — Hanmer would 
read 'brack'd'; Warburton, 'mock'd'; Eann, 'dew'd'; Johnson (?), 
' fleck'd' ; Thos. White, ' eik'd ' ; Hudson, ' degg'd ' ; Bailey, ' leck'd.' We 
venture to suggest that all the emendations seem steps prose-ward ; that 
the usual, if not uniform, sense of ' deck ' in Shakes, is adorn ; and that 
many times in Shakes, tears are pearls, as in Moore's Light of the 
Harem, 1 

" And precious their tears as that rain from the sky 
Which turns into pearls as it falls in the sea." 

In Sonnet xxxiv, 13, " Those tears are pearl" ; in Lucrece, 1213, tears are 
' brinish pearl ' ; in Venus and Adonis tears are ' like pearls in glass ' ; 
King John, II, i, 169, 'heaven-moving pearls ' ; Two Gentlemen offer., II, 
i, 224, ' a sea of melting pearl which men call tears ' ; Richard III, IV, iv, 
323, 324, 

" Those liquid drops of tears that you have shed 
Shall come again transformed to orient pearl " ; 

in Lear, IV, iii, 22, ' as pearls from diamonds dropped.' May not ' drops 
full salt ' = pearls ? See on line 397. 

157. undergoing = enduring, sustaining ? — stomach = stubborn reso- 
lution? courage? — See Jul. Cses., V, i, 65; Henry V, IV, iii, 35, etc. — 
Cotgrave (1611) defines courage, ' metall, spirit, hart, stomache.' — The 
stomach was supposed to be the seat of courage? — 159. Providence. 
Then Prospero believes, like Roger Williams, in an overruling Provi- 
dence? — Usually misprinted with a period after divine, following Pope 

1 Moore quotes from Eichardson, ' The Nisan or drops of spring rain, which they 
believe to produce pearls, if they fall into shells.' 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 41 

A noble Neapolitan, G-onzalo, 

Out of his charity, who being then appointed 

Master of this design, did give us, with 

Rich garments, linens, stuffs, and necessaries, 

Which since have steaded much. So, of his gentleness, 

Knowing I lov'd my books, he furnish' d me, 

From mine own library, with volumes that 

I prize above my dukedom. 

Miranda. Would I might 

But ever see that man ! 

Prospero. Now I arise. — 

Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. 170 

Here in this island we arriv'd ; and here 
Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit 
Than other princess can, that have more time 
For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful. 

Miranda. Heavens thank you for 't ! And now, I pray 
you, sir, 
For still 'tis beating in my mind, your reason 
For raising this sea-storm ? 

Prospero. Know thus far forth : 

By accident most strange, bountiful Fortune, 

(1723). — 162. who being, etc. The syntax is confused; but the best 
critics, with few exceptions, allow it to stand unchanged. Pope, Hudson, 
Keightley, and some others omit who. — 165. steaded = stood in good stead, 
done much service, helped? — So Mer. of Ven., I, iii, 6, etc. — As to the 
scansion of this line, and the attempts to compress it or cut it down to a 
pentameter, Furness well says, "These devices . . . recall the attempts 
of the elder sister to squeeze her foot into Cinderella's slipper." See on 
lines 83, 103. — 169. ever = sometime ? — at any time ? forever ? — Abbott, 
39. — arise = get up (to give orders to Ariel) [Heath] ? get up (a mere 
casual remark) [Capell] ? arise in my narration, my store heightens in its 
consequence (as the interest of a drama rises or declines) [Stevens, War- 
burton] ? the crisis of my fortunes has come (and I emerge from obscurity) 
[Wright, Hudson, Joseph Crosby] ? arise (to put mantle on again) [Dyce, 
Delius, Collier, Rolfe, Br. Nicholson] ? Staunton thinks the words Noio I 
arise ' are spoken to Ariel, above.' Furness inclines to think them figura- 
tive. Guess again ! — May there not be an astrological allusion ? See lines 
181, 182. — 172. schoolmaster. Shakes, repeatedly uses this word to 
denote a private tutor. Tarn, of Shr., I, i, 94, 129, 162; Ant. and Chop., 
Ill, xii, 2. — profit = benefit (received) ? receive benefit [Wright, Hudson, 
Rolfe, Deighton] ?— 173. princess. " The plural and possessive cases of 
nouns of which the singular ends in s, se, ss, ce, and ge, are frequently 
written, and still more frequently pronounced, without the additional syl- 
lable." Abbott, 471. "It is sufficient for a word to terminate in the 
sound of s to be regarded by the ear (sic) as a plural." Furness. — Rowe, 
Capell, Stevens, Malone, White, etc., change the word to 'princes.' — 
176. beating = working violently [Wright]? throbbing [Deighton]? — 



42 THE TEMPEST. [act I. 

Now my dear lady, hath mine enemies 

Brought to this shore j and by my prescience 180 

I find my zenith doth depend upon 

A most auspicious star, whose influence 

If now I court not but omit, my fortunes 

Will ever after droop. Here cease more questions : 

Thou art inclin'd to sleep ; 'tis a good dulness, 

And give it way. — I know thou canst not choose. — 

Come away, servant, come ! I am ready now ; 

Approach, my Ariel, come ! 

Enter Ariel. 

Ariel. All hail, great master ! grave sir, hail ! I come 
To answer thy best pleasure ; be 't to fly, 190 

To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride 
On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task 
Ariel and all his quality. 

Prospero. Hast thou, spirit, 

Perform'd to point the tempest that. I bade thee ? 

181. zenith. Span, zenit, a corruption of Arab, samt, way, road, path; 
Arabic samt-ur-ras, the way overhead. Figuratively, highest success ? — 
As to the influence of the stars, see what Gloster and Edmund say in Lear, 
I, ii, 94-130. — 182. influence. Astrological? Lat. in, upon; fluere, to 
flow. Job, xxxviii, 31. —Milton's L' Allegro, 121, 122. — 183. fortunes, etc. 
See Jul. Csbs., IV, iii, 216-222. —185. inclined. Effect of Prospero's magic ? 
Miranda has dwelt alone, from her infancy, with her father on a desert 
island compassed by ocean and the heavens ; and thus she has lived, fear- 
less and delighted, in the midst of mystery and beauty. Quiet in the soul- 
sleep of innocence, trustful in her father's care and power, she has dread 
of nothing. The spirits of air are her ministers, the brutes of earth are 
meek to her, and even Caliban bends to her service. But clouds gather in 
the sky ; winds rush upon the sea ; with the storm comes her prince, and 
with the prince comes love. The visionary world is broken into by the 
actual; realities intrude on fancies; and out of dreams she merges into 
passion. Now this, — a fable in outward fact, — is a truth in the inward 
life. The actual, natural, genuine maiden does dwell much alone. Her 
life is an island full of enchantments, girded by immensity. Giles's 
Human Life in Shakespeare, 1868. 

190. answer, etc. Neatly imitated by Fletcher in The Faithful Shep- 
herdess. Milton evidently has it, and lines 252-254, in mind in Paradise 
Lost, I, 150-152, where Beelzebub speaks of possible service to the Al- 
mighty, 

" whate'er his business be, 

Here in the heart of hell to work in fire 

Or do his errands in the gloomy deep." 

—193. quality = ability, power [Rolfe] ? professional skill [Wright] ? fel- 
low-spirits, ' profession ' [Steevens, Malone, Dyce, Hudson, Deighton, Phill- 
potts, Furness]? — 194. to point = to the minutest article [Steevens, 
Schmidt]? — to = up to, in proportion to, according to [Abbott, 187] ? — 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 43 

Ariel. To every article. 
I boarded the king's ship ; now on the beak, 
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, 
I flam'd amazement: sometime I'd divide, 
And burn in many places ; on the topmast, 
The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, 200 

Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors 
0' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary 
And sight-outrunning were not ; the fire and cracks 
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune 
Seem to besiege, and make his bold waves tremble, 
Yea, his dread trident shake. 

Prospero. My brave spirit ! 

Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil 
Would not infect his reason ? 

Ariel. Not a soul 

But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd 

Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners 210 

Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel, 
Then all afire with me : the king's son, Ferdinand, 
With hair up-staring, — then like reeds, not hair, — 
Was the first man that leap'd ; cried, ' Hell is empty, 
And all the devils are here.' 



Lat. ad, to; punchtm, point; Fr. de tout -point. — See at a point in our 
Macbeth, IV, iii, 135. — 197. waist — between the quarter-deck and the 
forecastle [Johnson]? — 198. divide, etc. " I do remember that in the 
great and boisterous storm ... in the night there came upon the top of 
our main yard and main mast a certain little light, much like unto the 
light of a little candle, which the Spaniards call the Cue.rpo santo, and 
said it was S. Elmo. . . . This light continued aboard our ship about three 
hours, flying from mast to mast and from top to top, and sometime it 
would be' in two or three places at once." Hakluyt's Voyages, ed. of 1598, 
de Eobert Tomson's voyage in 1555. — See ' Saint Elmo's fire ' in the una- 
bridged Diet.— Vergil's JEneid, ii, 682-684.— 200. distinctly = separately 
[Staunton]? — Lat. dis, apart, stinguere, to prick. — 202. momentary 
= lasting but a moment [Wright, Schmidt] ? happening every moment ? 
both senses? — 201-206. Neptune . . . trident. See Class. Diet.— 
207. constant = composed ? Lat. constans, steadfast, steady. — See our 
Mer. of Yen., Ill, ii, 242. — coil. Celtic goill, a struggle. See our Hamlet, 
III, i, 67. — 209. of the mad = such as madmen feel [Steevens, Hudson] ? 
of delirium [Kolfe, Meiklejohn, Phillpotts] ? — 212. afire. Abbott. 24.— 
Ferdinand, etc. Dramatic skill shown in separating him from the rest? 
213. up-staring. Lat. stare, to stand; root sta-, to stand, be fixed, 
stiff. Abbott, 429. — See Jul. Cses., IV, iii, 278, where Brutus says to the 
ghost of Csesar, 

" Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, 
That mak'st my blood cold and my hair to stare ? " — 



44 THE TEMPEST. [act I. 

Prosper o. Why, that's my spirit ! 

But was not this nigh shore ? 

Ariel. Close by, my master. 

Prospero. But are they, Ariel, safe ? 

Ariel. Not a hair perish' d ; 

On their sustaining garments not a blemish, 
But fresher than before : and, as thou bad'st me, 
In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle 220 

The king's son have I landed by himself ; 
Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs 
In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting, 
His arms in this sad knot. 

Prospero. Of the king's ship, 

The mariners, say how thou hast dispos'd, 
And all the rest o' the fleet. 

Ariel. Safely in harbor 

Is the king's ship ; in the deep nook, where once 
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew 
From the still-vex' d Bermoothes, there she's hid ; 
The mariners all under hatches stow'd, 230 

Who, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labor, 
I have left asleep ; and for the rest o' the fleet, 
Which I dispers'd, they all have met again, 
And are upon the Mediterranean note, 
Bound sadly home for Naples, 
Supposing that they saw the king's ship wrack'd, 
And his great person perish. 

217. are they, Ariel, safe ? Why this question ? Did he not know ? 
— 218. sustaining = bearing up or supporting the wearers [Steevens, 
Wright, Meiklejohn] ? bearing or resisting the effects of water [Mason, 
Schmidt, Kolf e] ? — Spedding and Hudson would read ' unstaining.' — See 
II, i, 61-63; also Hamlet, IV, vii, 174, 175, 180, 181. — 222. cooling of the 
air with sighs. See I, i, 48. — After 'cooling,' the 'of indicates that 
' cooling ' is a verbal noun originally, as if it were ' a-cooling,' or (in the 
act) of cooling. Abbott, 178. — 223. odd angle = singular nook? out- 
of-the-way corner? — See 'odd' in V, i, 255. — 221. knot = folded form 
[Hudson, Wright, Rolfe] ? Hamlet, I, v, 174. — 224-226, etc. Three things 
are inquired after. Note that Ariel's answer takes these up in their order. 
Hence the folio is right in placing a comma after ship ? — 229. Ber- 
moothes. See in the Introduction, under Source of the Plot, as to ' A 
Discovery of the Bermudas,' etc. — still-vex'd Bermoothes = the ever- 
chafed Bermudas? "Here," says Hanmer, "we have the Spanish pro- 
nunciation." In Elizabethan English, and for a hundred years later, 
'still' often = ever. See our Mer. of Ven., I, i, 17; our Jul. Cass., I, ii, 
238, etc. — 231. who. See on line 80, IV, i, 4.-232. for the rest. 
' Eor ' is still occasionally equivalent to as for. Abbott, 149. — 234. flote. 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 45 

Prospero. Ariel, thy charge 

Exactly is performed ; but there's more work. 
What is the time o' the day ? 

Ariel. Past the mid season. 

Prospero. At least two glasses : the time 'twixt six and 
now 
Must by us both be spent most preciously. 241 

Ariel. Is there more toil ? Since thou dost give me pains, 
Let me remember thee what thou hast promis'd, 
Which is not yet performed me. 

Prospero. How now ? moody ? 

What is 't thou canst demand ? 

Ariel. My liberty. 

Prospero. Before the time be out ? no more ! 

Ariel. I prithee, 

Eemember I have done thee worthy service ; 
Told thee no lies, made no mistakings, serv'd 
Without or grudge or grumblings. Thou didst promise 
To bate me a full year. 

Prospero. Dost thou forget 250 

From what a torment I did free thee ? 

Ariel. No. 

Prospero. Thou dost ; and think'st it much to tread the ooze 
Of the salt deep, 

To run upon the sharp wind of the north, 
To do me business in the veins o' the earth 
When it is bak'd with frost. 



~L&t. fluctus ; Lat..#u-ere, to flow; A. S.flot; Yv.flot, wave. — 240. glasses 
= hoar-glasses = hours? half-hours? See on V, i, 22.">. — 242. pains = 
labor, care, trouble? — 243. remember. Lat. re, again; memorari, to 
make mindful of? make mention of? — Often used transitively in Shakes. 
— Line 403. — 244. me. So me in line 255. Old dative denoting that to 
or for which ? — Abbott, 220. 

As a contrast to Caliban, we have Ariel, but by no means a purely ethe- 
real, expressionless angel ; rather a genuine spirit of air and of pleasure, 
graceful and free-thoughted, but light withal, mischievous, and at times a 
wee bit naughty. . . . Accordingly, almost like a human being, he has 
not infrequently to be reminded of it and kept in check. Franz Horn's 
Schauspiele Erlautert, 1832. 

249. grudge = complaint, murmur [Wright, Rolfe, Meiklejohn] ? repin- 
ing [Deighton] ? grudging [Schmidt] ? — Gr. ypv, gru, grunt of a pig. Imi- 
tative. Icel. krutr, a murmur; Swed. kruttla, Mid. Eng. grucchen, to 
murmur. — 250. bate = remit, deduct [Schmidt]? See II, i, 97, and our 
Mer.ofVen., I, iii, 114. — 252. ooze. See III, iii, 100. —253. run. Isaiah, 
xl, 31. — 254. business. See on 190. 



46 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. 

Ariel. I do not, sir. 

Prospero. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou 
forgot 
The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy- 
Was grown into a hoop ? hast thou forgot her ? 

Ariel. No, sir. 

Prospero. Thou hast. Where was she born? speak; 
tell me. 

Ariel. Sir, in Argier. 

Prospero. 0, was she so ? I must 261 

Once in a month recount what thou hast been, 
Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax, 
For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible 
To enter human hearing, from Argier, 
Thou know'st, was banish'd ; for one thing she did 
They would not take her life. Is not this true ? 

Ariel. Ay, sir. 



257. liest. Needlessly harsh ? — malignant. Any relevancy in John- 
son's remark that the fallen spirits, over whom magicians had power, 
were ill disposed ? 

With all our admiration and sympathy with the illustrious magi- 
cian, we perforce must acknowledge Prospero to be of a revengeful 
nature. He has not the true social wisdom ; and he only learns Christian 
wisdom from his servant Ariel. By nature he is a selfish aristocrat. 
When he was Duke of Milan he gave himself up to his favorite indul- 
gence of study and retired leisure, yet expected to preserve his state and 
authority. When master of the Magic Island, he is stern and domineer- 
ing, lording it over his sprite subjects and ruling them with a wand of 
rigor. He comes there and takes possession of the territory with all the 
coolness of a usurper ; he assumes, despotic sway, and stops only short of 
absolute unmitigated tyranny. Charles Cowden Clarke's Shakespeare 
Characters, 1863. 

258. Sycorax. Stephen Batman (1537-1587) is quoted by Douce thus : 
" The raven is called corvus of Corax. ... It is sayd that ravens birdes 
be fed with the deaw of heaven all the time that they have no blacke 
feathers by benefite of age." See lines 320, 321. — Among possible deriva- 
tions of the word Sycorax are the following : \Ijvx°ppv^ Psychorrex (from 
xl/vxv, psyche, soul, and p-qyvv^at, regnumai, to break) ; <tvk.ov, sukon, fig, 
and. p<££, rax, a poisonous spider, meaning Queen Elizabeth! Gr. o-Os, sus, 
5?, hus, a swine; Kopaii, corax, a raven; hog-raven, being a foul witch! 
[Gr. vatva, huaina, hyaena, is properly a sow ; then a Libyan wild beast. 
See on line 269.] — Arabic Shokoreth, deceiver. Seiaxghirir, a town on the 
island of Pantalaria, which, Elze thinks, is the possible ' original of Pros- 
pero's isle!' — See Furness. — envy. Lat. in, against; videre, to look; 
invidia, envy ; hatred. — Often in Shakes, it denotes malice. — 201. Ar- 
gier. Spanish and Port. Argel. The modern name, Algiers, dates from 
the 'Restoration'? The city has about 70,000 inhabitants. — 266. one 
thing she did, etc. But what it was, no person can tell. Perhaps 
Shakes, himself did not know! See Furness. 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 47 

Prospero. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with 
child, 
And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave, 270 

As thou report' st thyself, wast then her servant ; 
And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate 
To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands, 
Eefusing her grand hests, she did confine thee, 
By help of her more potent ministers, 
And in her most immitigable rage, 
Into a cloven pine ; within which rift 
Imprison'd thou didst painfully remain 
A dozen years ; within which space she died, 
And left thee there, where thou didst vent thy groans 280 
As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island — 
Save for the son that she did litter here, 
A freckled whelp, hag-born — not honor' d with 
A human shape. 

Ariel. Yes, Caliban her son. 

Prospero. Dull thing, I say so ; he, that Caliban, 
Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st 
What torment I did find thee in ; thy groans 
Did make wolves howl, and penetrate the breasts 
Of ever-angry bears. It was a torment 

To lay upon the clamn'd, which Sycorax 290 

Could not again undo ; it was mine art, 
When I arriv'd and heard thee, that made gape 
The pine, and let thee out. 



269. blue-eyed = having a blueness, a black circle about the eyes 
[Schmidt] ? the eyelids having a livid color [Wright] ? Hyenas have blue 
eyes ! (See on 258.) 

" Woe to the half dead wretch that meets 
The glaring of those large blue eyes 
Amid the darkness of the streets ! " 

— Moore's Paradise and the Peri. 
So have some angelic women ! 

" Feeling or thought that was not true 
Ne'er made less beautiful the blue 
Unclouded heaven of her eyes ! " — Lowell. 

272. And for thou wast. Abbott, 151, remarks, "'For,' in the sense 
of ' because of,' is found not only governing a noun, but also governing a 
clause." — 274. hests. See III, i, 37; IV, i, 65. A. S. haes, a command. 
277. into. Motion implied? Abbott, 159. — See line 359. — 284. Cali- 
ban. Coined by metathesis from canibal (cannibal) ? Arabic kalebon, a 
dog? — Furness thinks Elze's suggestion more plausible, that the name is 
derived ' from the region called Caiibia on the Moorish coast.' — 285. Dull. 



48 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. 

Ariel. I thank thee, master. 

Prosper o. If thou more murmur' st, I will rend an oak, 
And peg thee in his knotty entrails till 
Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. 

Ariel. Pardon, master; 

I will be correspondent to command, 
And do my spriting gently. 

Prospero. Do so, and after two days 

I will discharge thee. 

Ariel. That's my noble master ! 

What shall I do ? say what ; what shall I do ? 300 

Prospero. Go make thyself like a nymph o' the sea ; be 
subject 
To no sight but thine and mine, invisible 
To every eyeball else. Go, take this shape, 
And hither come in 't ; go, hence with diligence ! — 

\Exit Ariel. 
Awake, dear heart, awake ! thou hast slept well ; 
Awake ! 

Miranda. The strangeness of your story put 
Heaviness in me. 

Prospero. Shake it off. Come on ; 

We'll visit Caliban my slave, who never 
Yields us kind answer. 

Miranda. 'Tis a villain, sir, 

I do not love to look on. 

Prospero. But, as 'tis, 310 

We cannot miss him ; he does make our fire, 

Why called dull?— 297. correspondent. "Used to this day in a re- 
ligious seuse by Catholic writers iu reference to grace." Phila. Shakes. 
Soc — 298. spriting = work as a spirit? — gently = meekly? nobly? 
willingly, without reluctance [Schmidt] ? — after two days. Why 
two days? See the last five lines of the play; also line 420. — 301. 
like a nymph, etc. Why ' like a nymph of the sea,' if he was to be 
invisible? That the English audience, which Prospero was not thinking 
of, might see him? — 302. Steevens, Dyce, Hudson, and Deighton strike 
out thine and. Wisely? — " Ariel is swayed more by fear than gratitude, 
a fact which excites Prospero's anger. . . . Prospero is chafed with cer- 
tain obstacles in the magic sphere of his working, and occasionally wroth 
with Ariel and Caliban for resistance expressed or implied. He is also 
liable to perturbation of mind from forgetfulness, as in the Fourth Act, 
when he suddenly remembers the conspiracy of Caliban. And thus, with 
all his moral excellence, Prospero is made to awaken our sympathy for a 
natural imperfection." Heraud's Shakespeare — His Inner Life, 1865. 

307. strangeness, etc. Was that the real cause of her sleeping? — 
311. miss = to be without [Schmidt] ? do without [Wright, Hudson, Eolfe, 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 49 

Fetch in our wood, and serves in offices 
That profit us. — What, ho ! slave ! Caliban ! 
Thou earth, thou ! speak. 

Caliban. [ Within] There's wood enough within. 

Prospero. Come forth, I say ! there's other business for 
thee; 
Come, thou tortoise ! when ? — 



Enter Ariel, like a water-nymph. 

Fine apparition ! My quaint Ariel, 
Hark in thine ear. 

Ariel. My lord, it shall be done. [Exit. 

Prospero. Thou poisonous slave, come forth ! 

Enter Caliban. 

Caliban. As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd 320 
With raven's feather from unwholesome fen 
Drop on you both ! a south-west blow on ye, 
And blister you all o'er ? 

Prospero. For this, be sure, to-night thou shalt have 
cramps, 



Phillpotts, etc.] ? — 316. tortoise. Hunter says " there is a good deal that 
is Hebraistic in this play," and that Caliban " is, as to form, no other than 
the fish idol of Ashdod, the Dagon of the Philistines ! " Test this, 1 Sam., 
v, 4, 

" Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man 
And downward fish." — Par. Lost, I, 462, 463. 

Is the treatment of Caliban by Prospero creditable ? — when ? — Impa- 
tience? See in Jul. Cxs., II, i, 5, "When, Lucius, when?" — 317. 
quaint. Lat. cognitus, known, famous, and comptus, neat, adorned ; 
Old Fr. coint, defined by Cotgrave, ' quaint, compt, neat, fine, spruce, 
brisk, smirk, smug, dainty, trim, tricked up.' — See our ed. of Mer. of 
Ven., II, iv, 6. — "Caliban is malicious, cowardly, false, and base in his 
inclinations ; and yet he is essentially different from the vulgar knaves 
of a civilized world, as they are occasionally portrayed by Shakespeare. 
He is rude, but not vulgar ; he never falls into the prosaic and low famil- 
iarity of his drunken associates, for he is a poetical being in his way ; he 
always speaks in verse." Schlegel's Lectures on Dram. Literature, 1815. 
320. wicked = baneful ? mischievous? sinful? — In Shakes, mental 
and moral qualities are continually imputed to inanimate objects. Is it so 
here? — 322. southwest. " A noxious character is attributed in Shakes. 
to southerly winds." See Coriol., I, iv, 30 ; II, iii, 26-;>0. But why blister f 
Do the commentators seem to forget that this island may have been near 
the African coast, where the hot winds from the desert sometimes shrivel 



50 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. 

Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up ; urchins 
Shall, for that vast of night that they may work, 
All exercise on thee ; thou shalt be pinch' d 
As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging 
Than bees that made 'em. 

Caliban. I must eat my dinner. 

This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, 330 

Which thou tak'st from me. When thou earnest first, 
Thou strok'dst me and made much of me, wouldst give me 
Water with berries in 't, and teach me how 
To name the bigger light, and how the less, 
That burn by day and night ; and then I lov'd thee, 
And show'd thee all the qualities o' the isle, 
The fresh springs, brine-pits, barren place and fertile. 
Cursed be I that did so ! All the charms 
Of Sycorax, toads, beetles, bats, light on you ! 
For I am all the subjects that you have, 340 

Which first was mine own king ; and here you sty me 
In this hard rock, whiles you do keep from me 
The rest o' the island. 

Prospero. Thou most lying slave, 

Whom stripes may move, not kindness ! I have us' d thee, 
Filth as thou art, with human care, and lodg'd thee 
In mine own cell, till thou didst seek to violate 
The honor of my child. 



and blister? — 325. urchins = fairies [Douce, White]? hedgehogs [Steev- 
ens, Jephson] ? evil spirits in the form of hedgehogs, mischievous elves 
[Meiklejolm] ? hobgoblins [Wright] ? — Lat. ericius ; Old Fr. ericon; Fr. 
he'risson; Early Eng. irchon ; Mid. Eng. urchon, a hedgehog. See Mac- 
beth, IV, i, 2.-326. that vast of night that they may work = 
that empty stretch of night wherein they may work [Wright] ? — See 
Furness for a discussion of this passage, —vast = waste. — Hamlet (see 
our ed., I, ii, 198) has 

' In the dead vast and middle of the night.' 

Hudson explains this line in Hamlet as meaning 'in the silent void or 
vacancy of the night, when spirits were anciently supposed to walk abroad.' 
— 328. thick, numerous? full of (pinches) [Deighton] ? — honeycomb 
= cells of the honeycomb [Wright] ? — 332. made much. So the folio. — 
333. water with berries iii it = coffee ? — 334. bigger light, etc. — 
Genesis, i, 16. — "A special literary panegyric of the blessings of an unciv- 
ilized state of society was in existence in one of the Essays of Montaigne, 
translated by Florio in 1603. ... It seems difficult to escape from the con- 
clusion, that Shakespeare intended his monster as a satire incarnate on 
Montaigne's ' noble savage.' " Ward's Hist, of Eng. Dramatic Literature, 
1875. 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 51 

Caliban. ho, ho ! would 't had been done ! 
Thou didst prevent me ; I had peopled else 
This isle with Calibans. 

Miranda. Abhorred slave, 

Which any print of goodness wilt not take, 350 

Being capable of all ill ! I pitied thee, 
Took pains to make thee speak, taught thee each hour 
One thing or other ; when thou didst not, savage, 
Know thine own meaning, but wouldst gabble like 
A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes 
With words that made them known. But thy vile race, 
Though thou didst learn, had that in 't which good natures 
Could not abide to be Avith ; therefore wast thou 
Deservedly confin'd into this rock, 
Who haclst deserv'd more than a prison. 360 

Caliban. You taught me language ; and my profit on 't 
Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you 
For learning me your language ! 

Prospero. Hag-seed, hence ! 

Fetch us in fuel ; and be quick, thou'rt best, 
To answer other business. Shrug'st thou, malice ? 
If thou neglect' st, or dost unwillingly 
What I command, I'll rack thee with old cramps, 



349. Abhorred slave, etc. This speech the folio gives to Miranda. 
But most of the editors — Theobald, Wright, Hudson, Rolfe, White, Deigh- 
ton, Phillpotts, etc.— have substituted Prospero as the speaker. With 
Staunton, Krauth, and Furness, we prefer to follow the folio. Notwith- 
standing its severity, there is in the speech a feminine delicacy, which 
strongly contrasts with the masculine coarseness of Prospero. Besides, it 
is pleasant to think of the little girl as trying to teach the poor brute ; 
while her father teaches her ! See also II, ii, 128; III, ii, 58.-359. into. 
See on 277.— 361. on 't. See on 87. Abbott, 182. — profit ... to eurse. 
Too much of our so-called education finds such issue ! — 362. red plague 
= erysipelas [Steevens] ? leprosy (Leviticus, xiii, 42, 43) [Rolfe, Krauth] ? 
one of three different kinds of plague sores, red, yellow, and black [Halli- 
well, Hudson, Schmidt] ? Might refer to the red crosses on the doors of 
infected houses in Shakespeare's time [Grey]? — 363. learning. Used 
transitively? So in Cymbeline, I, v, 12, and in Spenser and the Bible. — 
364. best =' best off' (spoken colloquially), in best condition?— *\ou 
were best ' (= it were best for you) was the original, and ' you ' was prop- 
erly the dative ? Blunderingly the ' you ' came to be treated as a nomina- 
tive in such phrases, and then I and thou were also used. — Abbott, 230.— 
367. old = abundant [Rolfe, Deighton] ? huge (intensive) [Hudson] ? what 
one has known of old, and therefore remarkable or extreme [Meiklejohn] ? 
had of old or aforetime [Furness] ? such as the old are subject to [Schmidt] ? 
— See ' aged cramps,' IV, i, 256 ; also Macbeth, II, iii, 2; Mer. of Veil., IV, 
ii, 15. 



52 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. 

Fill all thy bones with aches, make thee roar, 
That beasts shall tremble at thy din. 

Caliban. No, pray thee. 

[Aside] I must obey ; his art is of such power, 370 

It would control my dam's god, Setebos, 
And make a vassal of him. 

Prospero. So, slave ; hence ! [Exit Caliban. 

Enter Ferdinand, and Ariel (invisible) playing and 
Ariel's Song. 

Come unto these yellow sands, 

And then take hands : 
Curtsied when you have, and kiss'd 

The wild waves whist, 
Foot it featly here and there ; 
And, sweet sprites, the burthen bear. 

Hark, Hark! 



368. aches. John Kemble, the actor, made it a dissyllable, and when 
he personated Prospero, he pronounced it aitches. One night, Kemble 
being ill, Mr. Cook took his place, and the London critics, who were 
strenuously disputing as to the proper pronunciation, listened eagerly for 
his utterance. He left the whole line out ! The newspapers made him 
soliloquize as follows : — 

" Aitches or alces, shall I speak both or either ? 
If ahes, I violate my Shakespeare's measure — 
If aitches, I shall give King Johnny pleasure ; 
I've hit upon't — by Jove ! I'll utter neither ! " 

See, post, III, iii, 2; also Much Ado, III, iv, 47-50. — 369. that. Line 85. 
Abbott, 283. — pray thee. Very common ellipsis? Abbott, 401. Short- 
ened to prithee. — 371. "They [the Patagonians] roared like bulls, and 
cried upon their great devil, Setebos, to help them." Story of Magellan's 
voyage (in 1519) in Eden's History of Travaile, published (1577) when 
Shakespeare was 13. — Setebos is said by Malone, copying Capell, to be 
mentioned in Hakluyt's Voyages (1598). — 375. curtsied, or courtesiedf 

— kiss'd . . . whist = kissed . . . into silence? — A great deal of inge- 
nuity has been expended on this passage. Perhaps the best interpretation 
is that of Allen approved by Furness, as follows : " The nymphs are formed 
on the sands for a dance; the waves . . . are spectators, restless and 
noisy until the spectacle shall begin . . . When the nymphs indicate, by 
taking hands, courtesying to and kissing partners, that they are begin- 
ning, the waves are hushed into silent attention ; and thus the nymphs do 
in effect ' kiss the wild waves whist.' " In Milton's Hijmn on the Nativity, 
v, 4, whist = silenced. — 377. featly = skilfully ? neatly? — Lat. factum, 
Fr. fait, a deed, ix.facere, to do; Eng./eai, a deed well done, an exploit. 

— 378. burthen (Fr. bourdon, drone or bass ; a humble-bee ; akin to burr, 
to buzz, an imitative word), a verse repeated in song, a refrain. 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 53 

["Burthen, dispersedly, within. Bow-wow. ~\ 380 

The watch-dogs bark. 
[Burthen, within. Bow-wow. ~] 

Hark, Hark! I hear 

The strain of strutting chanticleer 

Cry, Cock a-didle-dow. 

Ferdinand. Where should this music be ? i' the air or 
the earth ? — 
It sounds no more ; — and, sure, it waits upon 
Some god o' the island. Sitting on a bank, 
Weeping again the king my father's wrack, 
This music crept by me upon the waters, 390 

Allaying both their fury and my passion 
With it's sweet air ; thence I have f ollow'd it, 
Or it hath drawn me rather. But 'tis gone. — 
No, it begins again. 

Ariel's Song. 

Full fathom jive thy father lies; 

Of his bones are coral made; 
Those are pearls that were his eyes : 

Nothing of him that doth fade, 
But doth suffer a sea-change 

Into something rich and strange. 400 

Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell : 

[Burthen within. Ding-dong. ,] 
Hark ! now I hear them — Ding-dong, bell. 

Ferdinand. The ditty does remember my drown' d father. 



386. should. Used, says Abbott (325), in direct questions about the 
past where ' shall ' was used about the future. — Ferdinand here falls into 
a reverie [Strachey] ? — 389. again = again and again [Abbott, 27 ; Rolfe] ? 
— 391. passion. Lat. passio, suffering; fr. iraQeLv, pathein, Lat. pati, to 
suffer. — 392. it's. So the folio. See on 95.-395. fathom. A. S.fmdm, 
embrace ; hence the length of the arms extended to embrace all ; six feet. 
For the 'singular,' see on line 53. Note the alliteration. — 396. are. Is 
' coral ' virtually plural, a sort of ' collective noun ' ? Or does the proxim- 
ity of the plural ' bones ' control the ' number ' of the verb ? Or did Shakes, 
wish to avoid the sound of bones is? Abbott, 412. — In Macbeth, V, viii, 
56, 'pearl' means a circle or group of noblemen. — 397. pearls. See on 
deck'd, line 155. — 403. ding-dong. See Mer. of Ven., Ill, ii, 71, 72. Our 
language is rich in onomatopoeia, in which Professor Whitney thinks he 
finds the main originating principle of language. — 404. remember. Com- 
memorate ? call to (my) mind ? recollect ? remind of ? Note on line 243. — 



54 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. 

This is no mortal business, nor no sound 

That the earth owes. — I hear it now above me. 

Prospero. The fringed curtains of thine eye advance, 
And say what thou seest yond. 

Miranda. What is't ? a spirit ? 

Lord, how it looks about ! Believe me, sir, 
It carries a brave form. But 'tis a spirit. 410 

Prospero. No, wench ; it eats and sleeps and hath such 
senses 
As we have — such. This gallant which thou seest 
Was in the wrack ; and, but he's something stain' d 
With grief that's beauty's canker, thou mightst call him 
A goodly person. He hath lost his fellows, 
And strays about to find 'em. 

Miranda. I might call him 

A thing divine, for nothing natural 
I ever saw so noble. 

Prospero. \_Aside~] It goes on, I see, 
As my soul prompts it. — Spirit, fine spirit ! I'll free thee 
Within two days for this. 

405. — nor no = nor any ? Force of double negative ? Abbott, 406. In 
Early E. the desire of emphasis doubtless gave rise to many such. Thus : 
"No son, were he never so old of years, might not marry." Ascham's 
Scholemaster. — 406. owes = possesses ? Often so in Shakes. Line 453; 
III, i, 45. See our Macbeth, I, iii, 76.— Abbott, 290.— 407. fringed cur- 
tains of thine eye advance = look ? open your eyes ? Does this sound 
like Shakespeare diction? — " The solemnity of the phraseology assigned 
to Prospero is completely in character, recollecting his preternatural ca- 
pacity." Coleridge's Seven Lectures. In Pericles, Thaisa's eyelashes are 
called 'fringes of bright gold.' In IV, i, 177, we read 'advanc'd their 
eyelids.' — Advance in Shakes, often means lift up. Lat. ab, from; ante, 
before; Fr. avancer, to go before.— 408. yond. See on II, ii, 20. — A. S. 
geon, geond, there, at a distance; Ger. jener. — 412. gallant. Late Lat. 
galare, to regale; O. Fr. galer, fr. Goth, gailjan, to rejoice; Fr. and Ital. 
gala, finery, festivity. Brachet, Wore — 413. but = were it not that; 
but that; except? — Abbott, 120. — something = a thing? somewhat? in 
some degree? Ill, i, 58; Mer. of Ven., I, ii, 124; Hamlet, III, i, 173; Abbott, 
68. — 414. canker = rust or tarnish [Hudson, who quotes James, v, 3]? 
canker-worm [Rolf e, Deighton, Schmidt; and Wright, who quotes, "But 
now will canker sorrow eat my bud," King John, III, iv, 82] ? — " Shakes, 
uses ' canker ' in four senses ; the canker-worm, dog-rose, cancer, and 
rust." Hudson. — 415. Note the antithesis between ' goodly person ' and 
' thing divine.' — 420. two days. I, ii, 298. — " Fouque would have made 
Ariel a female spirit becoming Miranda by the power of love, and mar- 
riage to Ferdinand ; but how much finer, because truer, is Shakespeare's 
Miranda, a real and complete woman from first to last ! Fouque 's con- 
ception is indeed very charming, but wants the reality of Shakespeare's, 
without surpassing it in poetic ideality." Sir Edward Strachey in Quar- 
terly Review, July, 1890. 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 55 

Ferdinand. Most sure, the goddess 420 

On whom these airs attend ! — Vouchsafe my prayer 
May know if you remain upon this island ; 
And that you will some good instruction give 
How I may bear me here : my prime request, 
Which I do last pronounce, is, you wonder ! 
If you be maid or no ? 

Miranda. No wonder, sir, 

But certainly a maid. 

Ferdinand. My language ! heavens ! — 

I am the best of them that speak this speech, 
Were I but where 'tis spoken. 

Prospero. How ! the best ? 

What wert thou, if the King of Naples heard thee ? 430 

Ferdinand. A single thing, as I am now, that wonders 
To hear thee speak of Naples. He does hear me, 
And that he does I weep ; myself am Naples, 
Who with mine eyes, never since at ebb, beheld 
The king my father wrack'd. 

Miranda. Alack, for mercy ! 

Ferdinand. Yes, faith, and all his lords; the Duke of 
Milan 
And his brave son being twain. 

Prospero. \_Aside~] The Duke of Milan 

And his more braver daughter could control thee, 



420. sure, the goddess. Vergil's 0, dea, certe ! O, a goddess, surely! 
jEneid, i, 328; Comus, 267. — 421. vouchsafe. See our Jul. Csss., II, i, 
313. — The omission of 'that,' which, however, is immediately inserted, 
shows how plastic the language was in Shakespeare's time. Abbott, 285. 
— 426. maid = unmarried ? Lines 446-448. — The 1st folio has 'Mayd.' 
The 4th folio has 'made/ which all the editors down to Singer, 1826, 
adopted, playing on the word! "Since then, every editor, without ex- 
ception, I helieve, has followed the first folio." Furness. — 431. single = 
feeble ? unmarried ? — " Ferdinand plays upon the word. He believes that 
himself and the King of Naples are one and the same person ; he therefore 
uses this epithet with a reference to its further sense of solitary, and so 
feeble and helpless." Wright. See our Macbeth, I, iii, 140; vi, 16. White 
quotes as analogous the phrase 'one-horse town.' — 433. I am Naples. 
Shakes, often gives the king the name of his realm. " L'e'tat; c'est moi," 
I am the state, said the French monarch. See our Hamlet, I, i, 61. — 
437. brave son. Scrutinize the dramatis personse. Might Adrian be he ? 
Fleay suggests that "perhaps Francisco is what is left of him" ! Was 
Shakespeare forgetful ? — 438. more braver. Line 19. — control = con- 
fute [Johnson, Schmidt, etc.]? contradict [Wright]? rule? Fuller has, 
" This report was controlled to be false." — O. Fr. contre-role, a duplicate 
register, used to verify the first or official roll. Brachet. O. Fr. contre, 



56 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. 

If now 'twere fit to do't. — At the first sight 
They have chang'd eyes. — Delicate Ariel, 440 

I'll set thee free for this. — [To Mm] A word, good sir ; 
I fear yon have done yonrself some wrong : a word. 

Miranda. Why speaks my father so nngently ? This 
Is the third man that e'er I saw, the first 
That e'er I sigh'd for ; pity move my father 
To be inclin'd my way ! 

Ferdinand. 0, if a virgin, 

And yonr affection not gone forth, I'll make yon 
The Queen of Naples. 

Prospero. Soft, sir ! one word more. — 

[Aside'] They are both in either's powers; bnt this swift 

business 
I must uneasy make, lest too light winning 450 

Make the prize light. — [To him] One word more ; I charge 

thee 
That thou attend me. Thou dost here usurp 
The name thou owest not, and hast put thyself 
Upon this island as a spy, to win it 
From me, the lord on't. 

Ferdinand. No, as I am a man. 

Miranda. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a temple ; 
If the ill spirit have so fair a house, 
Good things will strive to dwell with't. 

Prospero. [ To Ferdinand] Follow me. — 

Speak not you for him ; he's a traitor. — Come ; 
I'll manacle thy neck and feet together : 460 

Sea-water shalt thou drink ; thy food shall be 

Lat. contra, over against; role, Lat. rotulus, a roll. — 440. changed eyes. 
" It is love at first sight, and it appears to me that in all cases of real love, 
it is at one moment that it takes place." Coleridge. — 442. wrong. 
What? — A polite way of saying 'You are mistaken,' or something 
plainer still [Wright] ?— 443. Why speaks, etc. Answered in 449-451 ? — 
445. pity move. A bbott, 364, 365. — 446. — O, if, etc. Line 426. Abbott, 
387. —448. soft = hold? stop? Mer. of Ven., IV, i, 312. —449. In Shake- 
speare's 28th sonnet, we have, 'And each, though enemies to either's reign '; 
in Henry V, II, ii, 106, 'As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose.' — 
Abbott, 12. — 452. attend = wait on, or follow? accompany? attend to? 
Abbott, 200, 369. Ellipsis? — 453. owest = dost possess? ownest? art in- 
debted to? See on 405. — 456. temple. Is this a trace of Shakespeare's 
Bible reading? 1 Corinth., vi, 19; 2 Corinth., vi, 16; Macbeth, II, iii, 49. 
— 460. manacle, etc. Neck and feet were drawn close together, and the 
position soon became one of terrible torture. — Lat. manus, hand, from 
ma, Sansk. met, to measure ; Lat. manica, a long sleeve, glove, gauntlet, 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 57 

The fresh-brook muscles, wither'd roots, and husks 
Wherein the acorn cradled. Follow. 

Ferdinand. No ; 

I will resist such entertainment till 
Mine enemy has more power. 

\He draws, and is charmed from moving. 

Miranda. dear father ! 

Make not too rash a trial of him, for 
He's gentle, and not fearful. 

Prospero. What ! I say, 

My foot my tutor ? — Put thy sword up, traitor, 
Who mak'st a show, but dar'st not strike, thy conscience 
Is so possess'd with guilt : come from thy ward ; 470 

For I can here disarm thee with this stick, 
And make thy weapon drop. 

Miranda. Beseech you, father ! 

Prospero. Hence ! hang not on my garments. 

Miranda. Sir, have pity ; 

I'll be his surety. 

Prospero. Silence ! one word more 

Shall make me chide thee, if not hate thee ! What ! 
An advocate for an impostor ! hush ! 
Thou think'st there is no more such shapes as he, 
Having seen but him and Caliban ; foolish wench ! 
To the most of men this is a Caliban, 
And they to him are angels. 

Miranda. My affections 480 

Are, then, most humble ; I have no ambition 
To see a goodlier man. 

handcuff; manicula, dimin. — 467. gentle = 'of gentle blood,' high-born 
[Wright, Kolfe, Phillpotts] ? noble, high-minded, of a lofty spirit [Smollett, 
Staunton, Hudson] ? kind [Schmidt] ? mild and harmless [Ritson, Fur- 
ness]? — f earful = timid, cowardly [Warburton, Holt, Smollett, Staun- 
ton] ? formidable, terrible [Malone, Ritson, Wright, Deighton, Furness] ? 
" There may be a covert play upon the other significations both of ' gen- 
tle ' and 'fearful.'" Wright. — 468. — my foot ray tutor? Similar 
expressions are repeatedly found in authors of the Elizabethan age. Yet 
Walker proposed and Dyce and Hudson adopted fool for foot ! — ' The foot 
above the head.' Timon of Ath., I, i, 95, 96. —470. ward = ' guard ' made 
in fencing, posture of defence [Schmidt] ? Says Falstaff (1 Henry IV, II, 
iv, 181, 182) , " Thou knowest my old ward ; here I lay, and thus I bore my 
point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me." — Teut. base war, to 
defend; A. S.iveard, guard, watchman. Guard is a doublet of ward. — 
472. beseech you. Ellipsis? Line 369. The desire of brevity a suffi- 
cient explanation? Abbott, 283.-477. there is. See on 'cares,' I, i, 16. 



58 THE TEMPEST. [ACT I. SCENE II. 

Prosper o. [To Ferdinand] Come on; obey: 
Thy nerves are in their infancy again, 
And have no vigor in them. 

Ferdinand. So they are ; 

My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. 
My father's loss, the weakness which I feel, 
The wrack of all my friends, nor this man's threats 
To whom I am subdued, are but light to me, 
Might I but through my prison once a day 
Behold this maid. All corners else o' the earth 490 

Let liberty make use of ; space enough 
Have I in such a prison. 

Prospero. [Aside] It works. — [To Ferdinand] Come on. — 
Thou hast done well, fine Ariel ! — Follow me. — 
[ To Ariel] Hark what thou else shalt do me. 

Miranda. Be of comfort. 

My father's of a better nature, sir, 
Than he appears by speech ; this is unwonted 
Which now came from him. 

Prospero. Thou shalt be as free 

As mountain winds ; but then exactly do 
All points of my command. 

Ariel. To the syllable. 

Prospero. Come, follow. — Speak not for him. [Exeunt. 

— 483. nerves. Cotgrave (1632) defines nerf thus: 'a synnow [sinew] ; 
and thence might, strength, force, power.' Schmidt says that, in Shakes., 
' nerve ' is ' that in which the strength of a body lies,' and that it rather is 
equivalent to ' sinew, tendon, than an organ of sensation and motion.' — 
Hamlet, I, iv, 83. — In Milton's Comus, 659, 660, we have 

" Nay, lady, sit : if I but wave this wand, 
Your nerves are all chained up in alabaster." 

485. as in a dream. JEneid, xii, 908-912. —487. nor. Supply the ellip- 
sis. Abbott, 396.-488. but = otherwise than ? merely ? — 480. might I, 
etc. So in Chaucer's Knight's Tale, 370-380 (1228-1237, Gilman's ed., 
1879) . So Lovelace (1618-1658) sings in prison, — 

" When Love with unconfined wings 
Hovers within my gates, 
And my divine Althea brings 
To whisper at my grates. 



Stone walls do not a prison make, 

Nor iron bars a cage ; 
Minds innocent and quiet take 

That for a hermitage. 

If I have freedom in my love, 
And in my soul am free, 

Angels alone that soar above 
Enjoy such liberty." 



ACT II. SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 59 



ACT II. 



Scene I. Another Part of the Island. 

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian 
Francisco, and others. 

Oonzalo. Beseech you, sir, be merry ; you have cause — 
So have we all — of joy ; for our escape 
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe 
Is common : every day, some sailor's wife, 
The masters of some merchant, and the merchant, 
Have just our theme of woe ; but for the miracle — 
I mean our preservation — few in millions 
Can speak like us : then wisely, good sir, weigh 
Our sorrow with our comfort. 

Alonso. Prithee, peace. 

Sebastian. He receives comfort like cold porridge. 10 

Antonio. The visitor will not give him o'er so. 

Sebastian. Look, he's winding up the watch of his wit ; 
by and by it will strike. 

Oonzalo. Sir, — 

Sebastian. One; tell. 

ACT II. Scene I. Lines 1, 2. Keightley transposes thus : 

" You have cause 
Of joy, — so have we all." 

He declares the original text a 'printer's error.' But Gonzalo wishes to 
emphasize joy. By holding it hack, does it not come out later with more 
emphasis? — 3. hint. I, ii, 134. — 5. merchant = merchantman ? trad- 
ing vessel ? So in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, — 

"And Christian merchants, that, with Russian stems 
Plough up huge furrows in the Caspian seas." 

— 11. visitor. Peculiar sense?— "I was sick, and ye visited me." 
Matt., xxv, 36. — 12. winding . . . watch. " The invention of striking 
watches is ascribed to Peter Hele, of Nuremberg, about the year 1510." 
W. A. Wright, — 15. tell. A. S. tellan, to count. So 'tellers' count 
money or votes; ' all told,' ' tell off,' ' untold wealth,' etc. ; Psalms, xlviii, 



60 THE TEMPEST. [act II. 

Gonzalo. When every grief is entertain' d that's offer' d, 
Comes to the entertainer — 

Sebastian. A dollar. 

Gonzalo. Dolor comes to him, indeed; yon have spoken 
truer than yon pnrpos'd. 20 

Sebastian. Yon have taken it wiselier than I meant yon 
shonld. 

Gonzalo. Therefore, my lord, — 

Antonio. Fie, what a spendthrift is he of his tongue ! 

Alonso. I prithee, spare. 

Gonzalo. Well, I have done; but yet, — 

Sebastian. He will be talking. 

Antonio. Which — of — he or Adrian — for a good wager, 
first begins to crow ? 

Sebastian. The old cock. 30 

Antonio. The cockerel. 

Sebastian. Done. The wager? 

Antonio. A laughter. 

Sebastian. A match ! 

Adrian. Though this island seem to be desert, — 

Antonio. Ha, ha, ha ! 

Sebastian. So, you're paid. 

Adrian. Uninhabitable, and almost inaccessible, — 

Sebastian. Yet, — 

Adrian. Yet, — 40 

Antonio. He could not miss't. 

Adrian. It must needs be of subtle, tender, and delicate 
temperance. 

Antonio. Temperance was a delicate wench. 

Sebastian. Ay, and a subtle; as he most learnedly de- 
liver'd. 46 

Adrian. The air breathes upon us here most sweetly. 

Sebastian. As if it had lungs, and rotten ones. 



12. — 18, 19, dollar . . . dolor. The paronomasia is ancient. Lear, II, 
iv, 50. — 28. of he or Adrian. Justify *he.' Suppose Antonio begins 
' Which of,' and then checks himself, saying (or implying by a gesture, 
' is it ') ' he ? or Adrian ? ' In an undertone ?— ' Like the French Lequel 
preferez-vous de Corneille ou de Racine.' Phila. Sh. Soc. — Abbott, 206, 
' he for him ' ; Furness, on As You L. I., Ill, ii, (337) 356. — Note in V, i, 
15, 'him' for 'he.' — 31. cockerel. Said to be a double dimin., like 
pick-er-el, mack-er-el. — 36. Which won? — 37. paid. Explain. — 43. 
temperance = temperature [Steevens] ? — 44. was. Emphatic ? The 
virtues made convenient names? — 45. deliver'd = related ? declared? 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 61 

Antonio. Or as 'twere perfumed by a fen. 

Gonzalo. Here is every thing advantageous to life. 50 

Antonio. True; save means to live. 

Sebastian. Of that there's none, or little. 

Gonzalo. How lush and lusty the grass looks ! how green ! 

Antonio. The ground, indeed, is tawny. 

Sebastian. With an eye of green in't. 

Antonio. He misses not much. 

Sebastian. JSTo ; he doth but mistake the truth totally. 

Gonzalo. But the rarity of it is, — which is indeed almost 
beyond credit, — 

Sebastian. As many vouched rarities are. 60 

Gonzalo. That our garments, being, as they were, drenched 
in the sea, hold, notwithstanding, their freshness and glosses 
being rather new-dyed than stained with salt water. 

Antonio. If but one of his pockets could speak, would it 
not say he lies ? 

Sebastian. Ay, or very falsely pocket up his report. 

Gonzalo. Methinks our garments are now as fresh as when 
we put them on first in Afric, at the marriage of the king's 
fair daughter Claribel to the King of Tunis. 

Sebastian. 'Twas a sweet marriage, and we prosper well 
in our return. 71 

Adrian. Tunis was never graced before with such a para- 
gon to their queen. 



formally uttered speech-fashion? — 48, 49. Coriolanus, III, iii, 120, 121. — 
53. lush and lusty. "Shakes, has 'lush' (short for luscious) in the 
sense of luxuriant in growth, where Chaucer would certainly have said 
lusty; the curious result heiug that Shakes, uses hoth words together." 
Skeat. See Tennyson's Dream of Fair Women, line 71. — 54. tawny. 
Another spelling of tanny, i.e. resembling that which is tanned by the 
sun. Skeat. See on orange-tawny in our Mid. N. Dr., I, ii, 82. — 55. eye 
of green. Is ' eye ' pat for what the eye reveals? — eye = small shade 
[Steevens] ? small portion [Malone] ? quibbling refereuce to green-eyed 
credulity [Hunter]? — "The jesting pair mean that the grass is really 
tawny {tanned, dried up) , and that the only ' green ' spot in it is Gonzalo 
himself." Phillpotts. — 63. stained, etc. "Sea-water freshens and 
cleanses woollen cloth." Stearns's Shakespeare Treasury. — G4. pockets, 
etc. Supposed full of mud ? — 65. pocket-up = conceal (as in the 
pocket)? pusillanimously ignore? take clandestinely or fraudulently? — 
72. paragon. Hamlet, II, ii, 302. — Span, para (from Lat. pro, forth, 
and ad, to), in comparison ; con, Lat. cum, with; Fr. and Span, paragon, 
pattern, perfect model. Skeat. Webster's Int. Diet, makes it fr. Gr. 
n-apa, para, beside, and aaov-q, akone, whetstone. — 73. to. So " Wilt thou 
have this woman to thy wedded wife," in the ' Marriage Office ' in the 
Book of Common Prayer ; Mark, xii, 23. See III, iii, 54; Abbott, 189.— 



62 THE TEMPEST. [ACT II. 

Gonzalo. Not since widow Dido's time. 

Antonio. Widow ! a plague o' that ! How came that 
widow in ? Widow Dido ! 

Sebastian. What if he had said widower iEneas too ? 
Good Lord, how yon take it ! 

Adrian. Widow Dido, said you ? you make me study of 
that ; she was of Carthage, not of Tunis. 80 

Gonzalo. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage. 

Adrian. Carthage ? 

Gonzalo. I assure you, Carthage. 

Antonio. His word is more than the miraculous harp. 

Sebastian. He hath raised the wall, and houses too. 

Antonio. What impossible matter will he make easy 
next? 

Sebastian. I think he will carry this island home in his 
pocket, and give it his son for an apple. 

Antonio. And, sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring 
forth more islands. 90 

Gonzalo. Ay ? 

Antonio. Why, in good time. 

Gonzalo. Sir, we were talking that our garments seem 
now as fresh as when we were at Tunis at the marriage of 
your daughter, who is now queen. 

Antonio. And the rarest that e'er came there. 

Sebastian. Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido. 

Antonio. 0, widow Dido ! ay, widow Dido. 

Gonzalo. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day 
I wore it ? I mean, in a sort. 100 

Antonio. That sort was well fished for. 

Gonzalo. When I wore it at your daughter's marriage ? 



74. Dido. Troy is said to have been captured about 1184 B.C. ; Dido, to 
have founded Carthage about 853 b.c. Her husband was Sychaeus; 
iEneas' wife, Creusa. It would seem, therefore, that about 330 years 
intervened between widow and widower ; but Vergil cares no more than 
Shakespeare for accurate chronology. ^Eneid, ii, iv. — 75. widow. Om- 
inous ! — 80. Tunis. Some three or four miles from the ruins of Carthage. 
— 84. harp. Amphion's lyre is said to have raised the walls of Thebes; 
Apollo's, those of Troy. Has Gonzalo's word made two cities one ? — 
07. Bate = except? omit? See I, ii, 250; also on 'bated ' in our Mer. of 
Veil., I, iii, 114. — 101. sort = word 'sort'? Was the word 'fished' 
suggested by ' sort ' ? " When the net is drawn, the fish are always, what 
they term ' sorted ' ; some are thrown back into the water, others carried 
sorted to market." Dirrill. See on association of ideas our As You Like 
It, II, vii, 44; Furness' Var. Ed. of .4s You Like It, pp. 109-111.— 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 63 

Alonso. You cram these words into mine ears against 
The stomach of my sense. Would I had never 
Married my daughter there ! for, coming thence, 
My son is lost ; and, in my rate, she too, 
Who is so far from Italy remov'd 
I ne'er again shall see her. thou mine heir 
Of Naples and of Milan, what strange fish 
Hath made his meal on thee ? 

Francisco. Sir, he may live no 

I saw him beat the surges under him, 
And ride upon their backs ; he trod the water, 
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted 
The surge most swoln that met him ; his bold head 
'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd 
Himself with his good arms in lusty stroke 
To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bow'd, 
As stooping to relieve him. I not doubt 
He came alive to land. 

Alonso. No, no, he's gone. 

Sebastian. Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss, 
That would not bless our Europe with your daughter, 121 
But rather lose her to an African ; 
Where she at least is banish'd from your eye, 
Who hath cause to wet the grief on't. 

Alonso. Prithee, peace. 

Sebastian. You were kneel'd to, and importun'cl otherwise, 
By all of us ; and the fair soul herself 
Weigh'd between loathness and obedience, at 
Which end o' the beam should bow. We have lost your son, 

103. cram. As unpalatable food into one's mouth? — 106. rate. Lat. 
reor, ratum, reckon, think, value, estimate ? I, ii, 92 ; Mer. of Ven., II, vii, 
26. — 113. enmity. Note the vivid personifications in this speech. Jul. 
Cses., I, ii, 104, 105. — 115. oar'd. Observe the turning of other ' parts of 
speech' into verbs. Abbott, 290. — See Odyssey, xii, 444, "I rowed with 
my hands"; Par. Lost, vii, 438. — 117. his. I, ii, 95, 392; Abbott, 228; 
" If the salt have lost his savor," Matt., v, 13. — 118. not doubt, V, i, 38, 
113, 304; Abbott, 305. — 121. who hath cause, etc. = who, lost to sight 
by banishment, though not by death, hath yet cause to fill your eyes with 
tears [Wright] ? which [eye] has cause to give tearful expression to the 
sorrow for your folly [Abbott, 264] ? whose unsuitable marriage might 
well make you weep [Phillpotts] ? which hath cause to sprinkle your grief 
with tears [Hudson, Meiklejohn, Deighton, etc.] ? — 125. importun'd. 
Accent? So usually in Shakes. — 127. weigh'd = Avas evenly balanced 
[Wright, Meiklejohn] ? hesitated [Hudson] ? pondered, deliberated [Fur- 
ness, Deighton] ? — 128. at which end o' th' beame should bow. 



64 THE TEMPEST. [ACT II. 

I fear, forever ; Milan and Naples have 

Moe widows in them of this business' making, 130 

Than we bring men to comfort them : the fault's 

Your own. 

Alonso. So is the dear'st o' the loss. 

Gonzalo. My lord Sebastian, 

The truth you speak doth lack some gentleness, 
And time to speak it in ; you rub the sore, 
When you should bring the plaster. 

Sebastian. Very well. 

Antonio. And most chirurgeonly. 

Gonzalo. It is foul weather in us all, good sir, 
When you are cloudy. 

Sebastian. Foul weather ? 

Antonio. Very foul. 

Gonzalo. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord, — 140 

Antonio. He'd sow 't with nettle-seed. 

Sebastian. Or docks, or mallows. 

Gonzalo. And were the king on 't, what would I do ? 

Sebastian. Scape being drunk, for want of wine. 

Gonzalo. I' the commonwealth I would by contraries 
Execute all things ; for no kind of traffic 
Would I admit ; no name of magistrate ; 



So the folio. But most critics change should to ' sh 'ould ' or ' she 'd,' 
meaning she would. But they don't tell us why she should make a bow 
at either end! — The question which she ' weighed,' or at which she hesi- 
tated, was, "Shall my ' loathness ' (unwillingness, reluctance, disgust) 
outweigh my duty of obedience to my father, or shall the obedience out- 
weigh the loathness? " In one scale, loathness ; in the other, obedience — 
which end of the beam shall sink ? not at which end of the beam shall I 
bow my head or bend my body ! — All the emendations remind us of black- 
smiths tinkering watches. See on I, ii, 155. — Personification here, as in 
lines 117, 118? — 130. moe is plural. Anciently moe was used of num- 
bers; more, of size. Skeat. — 132. dear'st. Often in Shakes, dear = 
heart-touching, as dearest foe in Hamlet, I, ii, 182. See our ed. For a 
discussion of the word, see Furness' Var. Ed., Rom. and Jul., V, iii, 32, 
pp. 272, 273. — 136. chirurgeonly. Gr. x «p, cheir, hand ; epyeiv, ergein, 
work. A ' chirurgeon ' (shortened to surgeon) is a hand-worker, not a 
drug-giver! Does Shakes, recognize the etymology in " I am indeed, sir, 
a surgeon to old shoes. ... As proper men as ever trod upon neat's 
leather have gone upon my handiwork." Our Jul. Cses., I, i, 24, 26. — 
139. cloudy. With anger, or sorrow ? — 140. plantation = planting ? 
colonizing. — 143. drunk, etc. "Shakes, never puts habitual scorn into 
the mouths of other than bad men," says Coleridge. —145-161. This 
passage, Capell (1766) and all subsequent commentators declare to be 
taken from Florio's (1603 or 1604) translation of Montaigne's Essays. 
But whoever would translate Montaigne into English must use substan- 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 65 

Letters should not be known ; riches, poverty, 

And use of service, none ; contract, succession, 

Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none ; 

No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil ; 150 

No occupation ; all men idle, all ; 

And women too, but innocent and pure ; 

No sovereignty; — 

Sebastian. Yet he would be king on 't. 

Antonio. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the 
beginning. 

Gonzalo. All things in common nature should produce 
Without sweat or endeavor : treason, felony, 
Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine, 
Would I not have ; but nature should bring forth, 
Of it own kind, all foison, all abundance 160 

To feed my innocent people. 

Sebastian. No marrying 'mong his subjects ? 

Antonio. None, man ; all idle ; — and knaves. 

Gonzalo. I would with such perfection govern, sir, 
To excel the golden age. 

Sebastian. Save his majesty ! 

Antonio. Long live Gonzalo ! 

Gonzalo. And, — do you mark me, sir ? — 

Alonso. Prithee, no more ; thou dost talk nothing to me. 

Gonzalo. I do well believe your highness ; and did it to 
minister occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such sen- 
sible and nimble lungs that they always use to laugh at 
nothing. 171 

Antonio. 'Twas you we laughed at. 

tially the same phraseology, and Shakes, may have drawn directly from 
the French. There is, however, in the British Museum a copy of Florio's 
translation containing what is supposed to be a genuine autograph of 
Shakespeare. — 149, bourn. ' Doublet ' of bound ; Old Fr. bonne ; Mod. 
Fr. borne, limit, boundary, landmark. Bracket, Skeat. — tilth. A. S. 
tilian, to till. The suffix th usually denotes condition or state, or the 
action of a verb taken abstractly. See on wealth in our Mer. of Ven., V, 
i, 237. — 158. engine = instrument of war, or military machine [Steevens] ? 

— Lat. ingenium, ingenious contrivance. — 160. It. See on it's, I, ii, 95. 

— foison. Lat. fusio, pouring, profusion, IV, i, 110; see our Macbeth, 
IV, iii, 88. — 163. all idle; whores and knaves. Cause and effect. 

— 165. to = as to? Abbott, 281. — golden age. The imagined age of 
primeval simplicity, purity, and peace. The poets of many nations have 
sung of such an Eden in the far past. — 169. sensible = sensitive ? Often 
so in Shakes. — nimble. A. S. niman, to take. " The sense is ' quick at 
seizing,' hence active." Skeat. Sensitive and nimble lungs are those 



66 THE TEMPEST. [ACT II. 

Gonzalo. Who, in this kind of merry fooling, am nothing 
to you ; so yon may continue, and laugh at nothing still. 

Antonio. What a blow was there given ! 

Sebastian. An it had not fallen flat-long. 

Gonzalo. You are gentlemen of brave mettle ; you would 
lift the moon out of her sphere, if she would continue in it 
five weeks without changing. 

Enter Ariel (invisible) playing solemn music. 

Sebastian. We would so, and then go a bat-fowling. 180 

Antonio. Kay, good my lord, be not angry. 

Gonzalo. No, I warrant you; I will not adventure my 
discretion so weakly. Will you laugh me asleep, for I am 
very heavy ? 

Antonio. G-o sleep and hear us. 

\_All sleep except Alonso, Sebastian, and Antonio. 

Alonso. What, all so soon asleep ! I wish mine eyes 
Would, with themselves, shut up my thoughts ; I find 
They are inclin'd to do so. 

Sebastian. Please you, sir, 

Do not omit the heavy offer of it : 

It seldom visits sorrow ; when it doth, 190 

It is a comforter. 

Antonio. We two, my lord, 

characterized as 'tickle o' the sere.' Hamlet, II, ii, 317. — 176. An = if? 
yes, if? Abbott, 101. — flat-long = striking with the flat side instead of 
the sharp edge ? — Adv. like headlong. Old Eng. dative fern. sing. Morris' 
Eng. Accidence, sec. 311. — So flatting in Faerie Q., V, v, 18. — 177. 
mettle. Spelled ' mettal ' in the folio. ' So we say ' man of iron,' ' of true 
steel,' etc. — 178. sphere. One of the 8 revolving, transparent, hollow, 
concentric, buhhle-like shells of the Ptolemaic or Alphonsine astronomy. 
In the first 7, the ' seven planets,' i.e. Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, 
Jupiter, Saturn, respectively, were supposed to he fastened, and in the 
8th the fixed stars. Hamlet, IV, vii, 15; Mid. JST. Dr., II, i, 150; Milton's 
Hymn on the Nativity, stanza xiii. 

180. a bat-fowling. An ancient mode of catching many sorts of birds 
in a dark night by blinding or bewildering them with bright torches, 
having beaten them from their haunts or nests with poles. Markham's 
Hunger's Prevention, 1621, quoted by Furness. The a is fr. A. S. on or 
an. ' Abbott, 140. See on amain, IV, i, 74. — 182. adventure . . . 
weakly, etc. = risk so foolishly my reputation for discretion ? Cym- 
beline, I, vi, 172. — 184. heavy. ' Heavy with sleep,' Luke, ix, 33. Often 
for ' drowsy ' in Shakespeare ; oftener for sad, sorrowful. Mer. of Ven., V, 
i, 130. — 185. hear us. Keightley and Hudson add ' not ' after ' us.' But 
why not let Antonio have his little jest ? — 189. omit. I, ii, 183. " ' Heavy ' 
in this line is proleptic or anticipatory," say the critics. — 190. visits 
sorrow. See in Young's Night Thoughts the fine lines beginning, ' Tired 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 67 

Will guard your person while you take your rest, 
And watch your safety. 

Alonso. Thank you. — Wondrous heavy. 

\_Alonso sleeps. Exit Ariel. 

Sebastian. What a strange drowsiness possesses them ! 

Antonio. It is the quality o' the climate. 

Sebastian. ; Why 

Doth it not then our eyelids sink ? I find not 
Myself dispos'd to sleep. 

Antonio. Nor I ; my spirits are nimble. 

They fell together all, as by consent ; 
They dropp'd, as by a thunder-stroke. What might, 
Worthy Sebastian ? — 0, what might ? — No more. — 200 
And yet methinks I see it in thy face, 
What thou shouldst be ; the occasion speaks thee, and 
My strong imagination sees a crown 
Dropping upon thy head. 

Sebastian. What, art thou waking ? 

Antonio. Do you not hear me speak ? 

Sebastia?i. I do ; and surely 

It is a sleepy language, and thou speak'st 
Out of thy sleep. What is it thou didst say ? 
This is a strange repose, to be asleep 
W T ith eyes wide open ; standing, speaking, moving, 
And yet so fast asleep. 

Antonio. Noble Sebastian, 210 

Thou let'st thy fortune sleep — die, rather ; wink'st 
Whiles thou art waking. 

Sebastian. Thou dost snore distinctly ; 

There's meaning in thy snores. 

Antonio. I am more serious than my custom : you 
Must be so too, if heed me ; which to do, 
Trebles thee o'er. 

nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep.' — 198. consent. Lat. consentire, 
to agree. Lat. con, together; sentire, to perceive by the senses, to feel. 
— 202. shouldst = oughtest to [Furness] ? Macbeth, I, iii, 45; Mer. of 
Vol, II, vi, 44; Abbott, 323. — occasion = Gr. Kcupo?, kairos; Lat. occa- 
sio, critical or favorable moment [Phila. Shakes. Soc] ? — speaks thee 
= expresses thee (i.e. shows thee as what thou canst be and what in posse 
thou art now) [Delius] ? shows what you are intended for [Jephson] ? pro- 
claims thee [Wright] ? reveals or proclaims thee [Hudson] ? — Macbeth, IV, 
iii, 159; Henry VIII, II, iv, 139. — 211. wink'st = shuttest thine eyes? 
Line 280; Acts, xvii, 30. — 215. if heed. So ' O, if a virgin,' I, ii, 496. 
For ellipses in Shakes., see Abbott, 382-405. — 216. trebles. How multi- 



68 THE TEMPEST. [ACT. II. 

Sebastian. Well, I am standing water. 

Antonio. Fll teach you how to flow. 

Sebastian. Do so ; to ebb 

Hereditary sloth instructs me. 

Antonio. 0, 

If you but knew how you the purpose cherish 
Whiles thus you mock it ! how, in stripping it, 220 

You more invest it ! Ebbing men, indeed, 
Most often do so near the bottom run 
By their own fear or sloth. 

Sebastian. Prithee, say on ; 

The setting of thine eye and cheek proclaim 
A matter from thee, and a birth, indeed, 
Which throes thee much to yield. 

Antonio. Thus, sir : 

Although this lord of weak remembrance, — this, 
Who shall be of as little memory 
When he is earth'd, — hath here almost persuaded, — 
For he's a spirit of persuasion, only 230 

Professes to persuade, — the king his son's alive, 
'Tis as impossible that he's undrown'd 
As he that sleeps here swims. 

Sebastian. I have no hope 

That he's undrown'd. 

Antonio. O, out of that no hope 



plies by three? Mer. of Ven., Ill, ii, 153. — Wilson would change trebles 
to ' rebels,' and then interpret ' rebels ' as meaning ' ripples,' in which he 
would find a pun that might suggest ' standing water ' ! Some ' fooling ' 
is 'admirable,' and some is not. —218-221. O, if you knew how . . . 
invest it, etc. = O, if you knew how that metaphor, which you use in 
jest, encourages ! how, in stripping off the ambiguous rhetorical dress, you 
the more clothe the purpose with the garb of reasonableness ! Or, If you 
knew how, "in stripping the words of their common meaning, and using 
them figuratively, you adapt them to your situation! " The latter expla- 
nation was given in the Edinburgh Magazine, in Nov., 1786. " The more 
Sebastian, by putting forward his natural indolence, seems to decline 
entering into Antonio's counsels, the more, as Antonio can perceive, he is 
really inclined to slip into them as into a garment" [Phillpotts] ? — 226. 
throes. A. S. threaw, a pain; throwian, to suffer pain; threowan, to 
afflict. —227. this lord = Gonzalo [Johnson, Jephson, Phillpotts, Fur- 
ness] ? Francisco [Capell, Hunter, Hudson]? See 110-119. — Francisco's 
age ? — of weak remembrance = remembering little ? having a weak 
memory? — 228. of as little memory = as little remembered ? — 230. 
he's = he is [Johnson, Furness] ? he has [Steevens, Monck Mason, Capell, 
Dyce, Hunter, Hudson] ? — only professes = is the only one that pro- 
fesses, or makes a show of (persuading) [Johnson] ? his only profession 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 69 

What great hope have you ! no hope that way is 

Another way so high a hope that even 

Ambition cannot pierce a wink beyond, 

But doubt discovery there. Will you grant with me 

That Ferdinand is drown' d ? 

Sebastian. He's gone. 

Antonio. Then, tell me, 

Who's the next heir of Naples ? 

Sebastian. Claribel. 240 

Antonio. She that is Queen of Tunis ; she that dwells 
Ten Jeagues beyond man's life ; she that from Naples 
Can have no note, unless the sun were post, — 
The man i' the moon's too slow, — till new-born chins 
Be rough and razorable ; she that from whom 
We all were sea-swallow'd, though some cast again, 
And by that destiny to perform an act 
Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come 
In yours and my discharge. 

Sebastian. What stuff is this ! How say you ? 

'Tis true, my brother's daughter's Queen of Tunis; 250 

So is she heir of Naples ; 'twixt which regions 
There is some space. 

Antonio. A space whose every cubit 

Seems to cry out, ' How shall that Claribel 

is [Wright, Furness, Meiklejohn]? — 237. Wright suggests the appropri- 
ateness of ' wink ' in connection with ambition's piercing eye. — 238. but 
doubt, etc. = (cannot) but doubt ? cannot pierce beyond without doubt- 
ing [Phila. Shakes. Soc; Furness, with misgivings] ? Many emendations 
have been proposed. We follow the folio. 

242. man's life = where men live [Meiklejohn] ? a lifetime of travel- 
ling [Steevens, Hudson, etc.] ? the city Zoa (life) south of Tunis [Hun- 
ter] ? seventy years [Croft, in Annotations on Plays of Shakespeare, 1810] ? 
Croft takes seventy years, the Scriptural limit of man's life (Psalms, xc, 
10) , adds ten leagues to the seventy years, and finds the sum total to be 
eighty leagues! As magnitude of distance is important, why did not 
Croft reduce the leagues to miles, and then say 70 years 4- 30 miles = 100 
miles? — 243. note = information, knowledge, intimation [Wright, Hud- 
son, etc.]? letter? — Mer. of Ven., Ill, iv, 51. — post = letter-carrier 
[Meiklejohn] ? Post is used more than twenty times for messenger in 
Shakes. — 244. too slow. Because lagging behind the sun, losing nearly 
an hour a day? — 245. that. So the folio. Most editors follow Rowe in 
omitting 'that.' Such apparent anacoluthon, or confusion of construc- 
tions, due, perhaps, to ellipsis, is quite natural, and betrays Antonio's ex- 
citement? — 246. cast. Antithesis of 'swallowed'? Notice how this 
theatrical word ' cast ' (to assign parts to actors) suggests ' act,' ' perform,' 
'prologue,' 'discharge.' Mid. N. Dr., I, ii, 83; IV, ii, 8.-249. What 
stuff is this ? A very proper question ! 



70 THE TEMPEST. [ACT II. 

Measure us back to Naples ? Keep in Tunis, 

And let Sebastian wake.' Say, this were death 

That now hath seiz'd them ; why, they were no worse 

Than now they are. There be that can rule Naples 

As well as he that sleeps ; lords that can prate 

As amply and unnecessarily 

As this G-onzalo : I myself could make 260 

A chough of as deep chat. 0, that you bore 

The mind that I do ! what a sleep were this 

For your advancement ! Do you understand me ? 

/Sebastian. Methinks I do. 

Antonio. And how does your content 

Tender your own good fortune ? 

Sebastian. I remember 

You did supplant your brother Prospero. 

Antonio. True : 

And look how well my garments sit upon me ; 
Much feater than before. My brother's servants 
Were then my fellows, now they are my men. 

Sebastian. But, for your conscience — 270 

Antonio. Ay, sir ; where lies that ? If 'twere a kibe, 
'Twould put me to my slipper ; but I feel not 
This deity in my bosom. Twenty consciences, 
That stand 'twixt me and Milan, candied be they, 
And melt, ere they molest ! Here lies your brother, 
No better than the earth he lies upon, 
If he were that which now he's like, — that's dead ; 
Whom I, with this obedient steel, three inches of it, 



253. us = us cubits? — Hudson changes 'shall that' to 'shalt thou.' — 
keep = keep she? let her keep? — Keep is still used for ' live,' or ' stay,' 
'dwell,' in portions of New England. — 257. be; plural, shortened from 
E. E. been? Ill, i, 1. — 261. make = become? create? train to be? — 
make a chough. . . . chat = train a chough to talk as deeply [Jephson] ? 

— chough, a red-legged Cornish crow. — All's Well, IV, i, 18. 

264. content = contentment, apathy [Hudson, Deighton] ? favorable 
judgment [Rolfe] ? — 265. tender = take care of, look out for [Hudson] ? 
esteem [Phillpotts] ? regard [Rolfe, Meiklejohn] ? or value [Rolfe] ? — 
Henry V, II, ii, 175; As You Like It, V, ii, 65.-268. feater. See on I, 
ii, 377. — 271. kibe = chilblain ? chap in the heel? sore heel? — See note 
in our Hamlet, V, i, 134. — 273. deity. Sarcastic? — Scan. Abbott, 471. 

— 274. candied = congealed. [Malone, Schmidt, Hudson, Rolfe, Deigh- 
ton, Meiklejohn] ? sugared over, and so insensible [Wright] ? turned to 
sugar [Phillpotts] ? sophisticated, like Chaucer's 'spiced conscience ' [Jeph- 
son] ? — Ar. and Pers. qand, sugar ; qandi, made of sugar, sugared. Skeat. 
In Timon of A., we have, IV, iii, 224, ' the cold brook candied with ice.' — 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 71 

Can lay to bed forever ; whiles you, doing thus, 

To the perpetual wink for aye might put 280 

This ancient morsel, this Sir Prudence, who 

Should not upbraid our course. For all the rest, 

They'll take suggestion as a cat laps milk ; 

They'll tell the clock to any business that 

We say befits the hour. 

Sebastian. Thy case, dear friend, 

Shall be my precedent ; as thou got'st Milan, 
I'll come by Naples. Draw thy sword ; one stroke 
Shall free thee from the tribute which thou pay'st, 
And I the king shall love thee. 

Antonio. Draw together ; 

And when I rear my hand, do you the like, 290 

To fall it on Gonzalo. 

Sebastian. 0! but — one word — 

[ They talk apart. 

Enter Ariel, ivith music and song. 

Ariel. My master through his art foresees the danger 
That you, his friend, are in, and sends me forth, — 
For else his project dies, — to keep them living. 

[Sings in Gonzalo's ear. 

While you here do snoring lie, 
Open-eyed conspiracy 

His time doth take. 
If of life you keep a care, 
Shake off slumber, and beware; 

Aivake ! Awake ! 300 



280. perpetual = continuous ? continuing without break? Root pat, to 
go ; Gr. narelv, patein, to tread ; Trd™?, patos, path ; Lat. per, throughout. — 
wink. Line 211. — aye. Meaning? Pronunciation? — A. S. a, Icel. ei, 
Gr. ael, aei, ever, always ; Lat. sevam, aye. — 282. should. Abbott, 
322. — 283. suggestion. Shakes, apparently uses this word ten times 
in the sense of temptation. See our Macbeth, I, iii, 134. — 284. tell. A. S. 
tellan, to count. Line 15. — 287. come by. In Acts, xxvii, 16, and Mer. 
of Ven., I, i, 3, 'come by ' = ^et. — 290. rear. Jul. Cses., Ill, i, 30.— 
291. fall. Abbott, 291.— 294. them. So the folio, referring probably to 
Alonso and Gonzalo. But many editors, as Dyce, Hudson, Clarke, etc., 
change them to 'thee.' Improvement? permissible change? "Ariel is 
half apostrophizing the sleeping Gonzalo and half talking to himself." 



72 THE TEMPEST. [ACT II. 

Antonio. Then let us both be sudden. 

Gonzalo. [ Waking'] Now, good angels 

Preserve the king ! — [To /Sebastian and Antonio] Why, how 

now ? — [To Alonso] Ho, awake ! — 
[ To Sebastian and Antonio] Why are you drawn ? wherefore 
this ghastly looking ? 

Alonso. [ Waking] What's the matter ? 

Sebastian. Whiles we stood here securing your repose, 
Even now, we heard a hollow burst of bellowing 
Like bulls, or rather lions ; did 't not wake you ? 
It struck mine ear most terribly. 

Alonso. I heard nothing. 

Antonio. 0, 'twas a din to fright a monster's ear, 
To make an earthquake ; sure, it was the roar - 310 

Of a whole herd of lions. 

Alonso. Heard you this, Gonzalo ? 

Gonzalo. Upon mine honor, sir, I heard a humming, — 
And that a strange one too, — which did awake me. 
I shak'd you, sir, and cried ; as mine eyes open'd, 
I saw their weapons drawn : — there was a noise, 
That's verily. 'Tis best we stand upon our guard, 
Or that we quit this place ; let's draw our weapons. 

Alonso. Lead off this ground; and let's make further 
search 
For my poor son. 

Gonzalo. Heavens keep him from these beasts ! 

For he is, sure, i' the island. 

Alonso. Lead away. 320 

Ariel. Prospero my lord shall know what I have done ; 
So, king, go safely on to seek thy son. [Exeunt. 



W. A. Wright. — 301-304. Staunton suggested, and Dyce, adding stage 
directions, adopted the reading which we give, and which Furness pro- 
nounces ' admirable.' — 303. drawn. Abbott, 374. Repeatedly in Shakes. 
applied to persons who have drawn. — 314. shak'd. Five times in Shakes. 
for shook. Abbott, 343. — 316. that's verily. So 'that's worthily,' 
Coriol., IV, i, 53. Pope changed verily to ' verity.' Abbott, 78. — best we 
stand. So Milton's Comus, 487. 

In this scene, why is prose used in banter or mockery, but metre in ut- 
terances of grief or sorrow ? Do dignity and emotion find better expres- 
sion in blank verse than in prose? Does humor? — Do Antonio and 
Gonzalo use mockery or scorn in order to rid themselves of uneasy feelings 
of inferiority ? — Compare the plot to murder Alonso with that in Macbeth 
to murder Duncan. Note in each Shakespeare's ' manner of familiarizing 
a mind to the suggestion of guilt.' 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 73 



Scene II. Another Part of the Island. 

Enter Caliban, with a burthen of wood. A noise of thunder 

heard. 

Caliban. All the infections that the sun sucks up 
From bogs, fens, flats, on Prosper fall, and make him 
By inch-meal a disease ! His spirits hear me, 
And yet I needs must curse. But they'll nor pinch, 
Fright me with urchin-shows, pitch me i' the mire, 
Nor lead me, like a firebrand, in the dark 
Out of my way, unless he bid 'em : but 
For every trifle they are set upon me ; 
Sometime like apes, that mow and chatter at me, 
And after bite me ; then like hedgehogs, which 10 

Lie tumbling in my barefoot way, and mount 
Their pricks at my footfall ; sometime am I 
All wound with adders, who with cloven tongues 
Do hiss me into madness. — 

Enter Trinculo. 

Lo, now, lo ! 
Here comes a spirit of his, and to torment me 
For bringing wood in slowly. I'll fall flat ; 
Perchance he will not mind me. 17 

Trinculo. Here's neither bush nor shrub, to bear off any 
weather at all, and another storm brewing ; I hear it sing i' 

Scene II. 1. sun sucks up. Any trace here of a superstition or 
fancy among the ignorant that " the sun is drawing water," when his 
slant rays seem to stream through the clouds? — 3. inch-meal. A. S. 
mael, piece, share, portion ; dative case, maelum, in pieces, separately. 
So ' limb-meal,' Cymbeline, II, iv, 146. We use ' piecemeal.' " Twice I was 
shot all into inch pieces." Serg't Reed. — 5. urchin-shows. Note, I, ii, 
325; our ed. of Comus, line 845. — 6. firebrand = ignis fatuus? See on 
'played the Jack,' IV, i, 198. —9. mow. See stage direction, III, iii, 82; 
IV, i, 47. — Fr. moue, a pouting face; fr. O. Du. mouwe, the protruded 
under lip. Bracket, Skeat. — 10. after. So III, ii, 144. —11. mount. 
'The fire that mounts the liquor,' Henry VIII, I, i, 144; id. I, ii, 205. — 
Had Shakes, been reading Harsnet's Declaration (1603), "They (young 
girls supposed bewitched) make anticke faces, grin, mow, and mope like an 
ape, tumble like a hedge-hogge," etc. — 13. wound = wounded ? enwrapped 
(by adders ' wound ' or twisted about me) [Johnson] ? — cloven. Macb., 
IV, i, 16; Mid. iV. Dr., II, iii, 9. —15. and = and comes? and that too 
[Abbott, 95, 96] ? — 19. at all. Does ' at all ' modify shrub f bear off? or 



74 THE TEMPEST. [ACT II. 

the wind. Yond same black cloud, yond huge one, looks 
like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor. If it 
should thunder as it did before, I know not where to hide 
my head ; yond same cloud cannot choose but fall by pail- 
fuls. — What have we here? a man or a fish? dead or 
alive ? A fish : he smells like a fish ; a very ancient and 
fishlike smell ; a kind of, not of the newest, poor-john. A 
strange fish ! Were I in England now, as once I was, and 
had but this fish painted, not a holiday fool there but would 
give a piece of silver: there would this monster make a 
man; any strange beast there makes a man. When they 
will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they will lay 
out ten to see a dead Indian. Legged like a man ! and his 
fins like arms ! Warm, o' my troth ! I do now let loose my 
opinion, hold it no longer ; this is no fish, but an islander, 
that hath lately suffered by a thunderbolt. [Thunder.'] 

weather? — 20. yond. The Teutonic type is yena, extended from Aryan 
base ya, that, Skeat. See on I, ii, 408.— 21. foul = unfair, vile? full? 
black with age and decayed — ready to fall to pieces [Rolfe] ? Tyrwhitt 
surmised that 'foul' was by rustics pronounced like 'full.' Upton and 
Jervis would read ' full.' Furness suggests that " the force of ' foule,' as 
in the text, is not at once apparent." But is it not just like 'scurvy' 
before 'tune,' line 41? — Lear, III, ii, 24. — bombard. 'A cannon or 
great gun, and jocularly a large drinking vessel.' Skeat. 'A very large 
leathern drinking vessel.' Halliwell. So a soldier calls his whiskey flask 
a ' pocket pistol ' ! Hal terms Falstaff a ' huge bombard of sack,' 1 Henry IV, 
II, iv, 16. — 26. newest = freshest? — poor-john = salt dry hake, a fish 
resembling the cod, but inferior; called hake, fr. Norweg. hake, hook, 
from its hook-shaped under-jaw. " I know not how it has happened that 
in the principal modern languages, John, or its equivalent, is a name of 
contempt, or at least of slight," says Tyrwhitt. Perhaps because the name 
was so common among the lower classes, and the average specimen of 
plebeian humanity was so poorly equipped ? See John Bull, Johnny Cra- 
paud, Mongolian Johnnie; John-a-dreams , Hamlet, II, ii, 55; IV, i, 197; 
Jack-o'-lantern, Jack Ketch, Jack-a-napes, jackstraw, jackass. — 26. Eng- 
land. Shakes, dearly loves to satirize good-naturedly his countrymen's 
foibles. Othello, II, iii, 65-68; Mer. of Ven., I, ii, 58-66.-29. make a 
man. Emphasis on make ? Is the phrase still used ? Foresaw Barnum ? 

— 30. doit. Dutch cluit, a copper coin, half farthing, eighth of a stiver? 
Perhaps Fr. d'huit, of eight, Lat. octo, eighth of a penny? Or Icel. thveit, 
a piece cut off (So Wb. Int. Diet.) ? Or allied to dot ? — Our Mer. of Ven., 
I, iii, 130. —31. dead Indian. Sir Martin Frobisher twice brought Indians 
to England, two of whom died there. The last time was in 1577, when he 
brought a man, a woman, and a child. "The captayne retayned two of 
these [Patagonian giants] , which were youngest and best made." Eden's 
Travels, 1577. " They seem to have been sometimes exhibited embalmed, 
or even manufactured at home, as we see in line 61 [53], 'Do you put 
tricks upon's with savages and men of Ind ? ' " Phillpotts. — See Furness. 

— 33. let loose = abandon ? allow to be uttered ? — hold = entertain ? 
cling to ? keep it back from being spoken ? — 34. suffered = experienced 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 75 

Alas, the storm is come again ! my best way is to creep 
under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabout. 
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. I will 
here shroud till the dregs of the storm be past. 

Enter Stephano, singing : a bottle in his hand. 

Stephano. I shall no more to sea, to sea, 

Here shall I die ashore, — 40 

This is a very scurvy tune to sing at a man's funeral. Well, 
here's my comfort. [Drinks. 

[Sings] The master, the swabber, the boatswain, and I, 
The gunner, and his mate, 
Lov'd Mall, Meg, and Marian, and Margery, 
But none of us car'd for Kate ; 
For she had a tongue ivith a tang, 
Would cry to a sailor, Go hang ! 
She loved not the savor of tar nor of pitch, 
Then, to sea, boys, and let her go hang ! 

This is a scurvy tune too ; but here's my comfort. \_Driy\ks. 
Caliban. Do not torment me ! — ! 51 

Stephano. What's the matter ? Have we devils here ? 

Do you put tricks upon's with savages and men of Ind, ha ? 

I have not scaped drowning to be afeard now of your four 

legs ; for it hath been said, as proper a man as ever went on 



suffering ? suffered death [Wright, Deighton] ? See ' suffered ' in the 
Creeds in the Book of Common Prayer. — 36. gaberdine. Span, gabar- 
dina, a coarse frock; gaban, a great coat. Mer. of Ven., I, iii, 102. — 
38. shroud. A. S. scrud, garment. Milton uses the word as a verb for 
find shelter or take shelter, in Comus, 316. — dregs. Refers to the liquor 
of the ' bombard ' . . . the very last drop of the storm [Furness] ? Is the 
newly arrived storm the dregs of the former ? 

41. scurvy. From the lack of anti-scorbutics, the word occurs to sea- 
men more than to others? — 43. swabber = deck-mopper or scrubber. 
Du. zwabber, the drudge of a ship; Swed. svab, a fire-brush; allied to 
swap, to strike, and to sweep. Skeat. — ^l. tang = sharp biting speech? 
high shrill tone [Meiklejohn] ? twang, unpleasant tone [Wright] ? — Imita- 
tive word, akin to tinkle, tingle, and perhaps to twang. Skeat. — 48. Yet a 
tailor might scratch her. We should expect sailor. — where ere she 
did itch. So the folio. — 53. Ind. So Par. Lost, ii, 2, and three times in 
Shakes. See on line 31. — you and yours in Stephano's drunken solilo- 
quy are colloquial ? addressed to some imaginary person ? Abbott, 221. — 
54. scaped. Fr. e'chapper, to escape. See our Mer. of Ven., Ill, ii, 265. 
— 55. proper. Hebrews, xi, 23; our Mer. of Ven., I, ii, 62; Jul. Cses., 



76 THE TEMPEST. [ACT CI. 

four legs cannot make him give ground ; and it shall be said 
so again, while Stephano breathes at nostrils. 

Caliban. The spirit torments me ! — ! 58 

Stephano. This is some monster of the isle with four legs, 
who had got, as I take it, an ague. Where the devil should 
he learn our language ? I will give him some relief, if it be 
but for that. If I can recover him, and keep him tame, and 
get to Naples with him, he's a present for any emperor that 
ever trod on neat's-leather. 

Caliban. Do not torment me, prithee ; I'll bring my wood 
home faster. 

Stephano. He's in his fit now, and does not talk after 
the wisest. He shall taste of my bottle ; if he have never 
drunk wine afore, it will go near to remove his fit. If I 
can recover him and keep him tame, I will not take too 
much for him ; he shall pay for him that hath him, and that 
soundly. 71 

Caliban. Thou dost me yet but little hurt ; thou wilt anon, 
I know it by thy trembling : now Prosper works upon thee. 

Stephano. Come on your ways ; open your mouth ; here 
is that which will give language to you, cat. Open your 
mouth; this will shake your shaking, I can tell you, and 
that soundly : you cannot tell who's your friend ; open your 
chaps again. 

Trinculo. I should know that voice : it should be — but 
he is drowned ; and these are devils ! — 0, defend me ! 80 

Stephano. Four legs and two voices ! a most delicate mon- 
ster ! His forward voice, now, is to speak well of his friend ; 
his backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract. 
If all the wine in my bottle will recover him, I will help 

I, i, 25. — 60. the devil = in the name of the devil, I ask ? the devil help 
me? — 64. neat's = hovine ? See our Jul. Cses., I, i, 26; Win. Tale, 
I, ii, 124, 125. — 69. afore, like ' afeard ' in line 54, is repeatedly found in 
Shakes. Note the scientific knowledge implied in this " if he have never," 
etc. — recover. Jul. Cses., I, i, 24. — 70. too much, etc. = no price will 
be too much [Malone] ? I will not set a great price [too much] on him 
[spoken ironically] ? — 73. trembling. Sign of demoniac ' possession ' 
or supernatural influence ? See Comedy of Errors, IV, iv, 49, "Mark how 
he trembles in his ecstasy." In Harsnet's (1603) Declaration, "All the 
spirits with much ado being commanded to go down into her left foot, 
they did it with vehement trembling " ; quoted by Furness. — 75. cat, etc. 
" Alluding to the old proverb that ' good liquor will make a cat speak.' " 
Steevens. Any resemblance to a catfish implied? — 76. shake your 
shaking = break up your ague? — 77. chaps (from chops?) Skt. kaf, 
jaw; A.S. ceaft, the jowl. Akin to 'chew.' — 81. delicate. He has his 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 11 

his ague. Come. — Amen ! I will pour some in thy other 
mouth. 

Trinculo. Stephano. 

Stephano. Doth thy other mouth call me ? Mercy, mercy ! 
This is a devil, and no monster : I will leave him ; I have no 
long spoon. 

Trinculo. Stephano ! If thou beest Stephano, touch me, 
and speak to me; for I am Trinculo, — be not afeard, — thy 
good friend Trinculo. 92 

Stephano. If thou beest Trinculo, come forth: I'll pull 
thee by the lesser legs ; if any be Trinculo's legs, these are 
they. Thou art very Trinculo indeed ! How earnest thou 
to be the siege of this moon-calf ? Can he vent Trinculos ? 

Trinculo. I took him to be killed with a thunder-stroke. 
— But art thou not drowned, Stephano ? I hope, now, thou 
art not drowned. Is the storm overblown ? I hid me under 
the dead moon-calf's gaberdine for fear of the storm. And 
art thou living, Stephano? Stephano, two Neapolitans 
scaped ? 102 

Stephano. Prithee, do not turn me about ; my stomach is 
not constant. 

Caliban. These l3e fine things, an if they be not sprites. 
That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor ; 
I will kneel to him. 

Stephano. How didst thou scape ? How earnest thou hith- 
er ? swear, by this bottle, how thou earnest hither. I escaped 
upon a butt of sack, which the sailors heaved o'erboard, by 
this bottle ! — which I made of the bark of a tree with mine 
own hands, since I was cast ashore. 112 



little grim joke. — 85. Amen = stop drinking ! [Steevens, Wright, Deigh- 
ton] ? Stephano is frightened and pat to his religion, and ' Amen ' is the 
hest he can do towards praying [Hudson]? a benediction [Capell]? — 
89. long spoon. " The Vice was made to associate with the Devil in the 
ancient Moralities [Morality plays], in which it was a piece of humor to 
make the Devil and Vice feed of the same custard or some such dish, the 
Devil on one side and the Vice on the other, with a spoon of vast length." 
Capell. "He must have a long spoon that eats with the devil," Com. of 
Er., IV, iii, 58, 59.-95. very Trinculo. Lat. verus, true. —96. siege = 
seat; stool. So in Meas.for M., IV, ii, 93. Lat. secies, Fr. siege, a seat.— 
moon-calf = monstrosity, abortion, lifeless lump. — 105. an if. An or 
and = if . " 'And if ' occurs on the same principle probably as ' most un- 
kindest.' " Furness. Abbott, 103. For emphasis, like ' verily, verily ' ? 
— sprites, I, ii, 378. — 109. by this bottle. Swear by what was most 
sacred? — 110. butt = cask of 126 gals.? — sack. Gr. <ra<Kos, Lat. saccus, 
A.S. sack, a bag? a wine-skin? Better fr. Lat. siccus, Span, seco, Fr. sec, 



78 THE TEMPEST. [ACT II. 

Caliban. I'll swear, upon that bottle, to be thy true subject ; 
For the liquor is not earthly. 

Stephano. Here ; swear, then, how thou escapedst. 

Trinculo. Swam ashore, man, like a duck; I can swim 
like a duck, I'll be sworn. 

Stephano. Here, kiss the book. Though thou canst swim 
like a duck, thou art made like a goose. 

Trinculo. Stephano, hast any more of this ? 120 

Stephano. The whole butt, man ; my cellar is in a rock by 
the sea-side, where my wine is hid. — How now, moon-calf! 
how does thine ague ? 

Caliban. Hast thou not dropped from heaven ? 

Stephano. Out o' the moon, I do assure thee ; I was the 
man i' the moon when time was. 

Caliban. I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee ; 
My mistress show'd me thee, and thy dog, and thy bush. 

Stephano. Come, swear to that; kiss the book: I will 
furnish it anon with new contents ; swear. 130 

Trinculo. By this good light, this is a very shallow mon- 
ster ! — I af eard of him ! — A very weak monster ! — The 
man i' the moon! — A most poor credulous monster! — 
Well drawn, monster, in good sooth ! 

Caliban. I'll show thee every fertile inch o' the island ; 
And I will kiss thy foot. I prithee, be my god. 

Trinculo. By this light, a most perfidious and drunken 
monster ! When's god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle. 

Caliban. I '11 kiss thy foot ; I'll swear myself thy subject. 

Stephano. Come on, then ; down, and swear. 140 

Trinculo. I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy- 
headed monster. A most scurvy monster ! I could find in 
my heart to beat him — 



dry; E. Eng. seek, a ' dry wine,' vin see? sherry? Canary wine or white 
wines of Spain? See Fumess. — 118. the book = the Bible? here the 
bottle? — 119. goose. Origin of the disparagement in bird names, as 
gull, loon, booby, etc.? Our Macb., V, iii, 11. — 126. man in the moon. 
See II, i, 144. They fancied they saw in the moon the shape of a man, a 
lantern, and a bush; that the bush was the bundle of sticks (in Numbers, 
xv, 32, 33) ; the man, Cain ; the dog, ' the foul fiend.' Some said that the 
bush represented the thorns and thistles that sprang up after ' the fall ' ! 
See in our Mid. N. D., note on III, i, 52; also M. N. D., V, i, 237.— 
133. well drawn = a ' good pull ' at the bottle ? — 138. rob = steal 
[Allen, Schmidt, Deighton] ? steal from [Wright] ? — 141. puppy-headed. 
So we sometimes hear 'pig-headed,' 'bull-headed,' etc. — 143. beat 
him— The sentence is interrupted by Stephano's "Come, kiss," and 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 79 

Steplmno. Come, kiss. 

Trinculo. But that the poor monster's in drink. An 
abominable monster ! 

Caliban. I'll show thee the best springs ; I'll pluck thee 
berries ; 
I'll fish for thee, and get thee wood enough. 
A plague upon the tyrant that I serve ! 
I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee, 150 

Thou wondrous man. 

Trinculo. A most ridiculous monster, to make a wonder 
of a poor drunkard ! 

Caliban. I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow ; 
And I with my long nails will dig thee pig-nuts, 
Show thee a jay's nest, and instruct thee how 
To snare the nimble marmoset. I'll bring thee 
To clustering filberts ; and sometimes I'll get thee 
Young scamels from the rock. Wilt thou go with me ? 

Stepliano. I prithee now, lead the way without any more 
talking. — Trinculo, the king and all our company else being 
drowned, we will inherit here. — Here, bear my bottle. — 
Fellow Trinculo, we'll fill him by and by again. 163 

then is resumed by Trinculo's adding "but that the poor," etc. — 144. 
kiss. What? bottle? foot? — 154. crabs? Small sour apples? shell- 
fish? — 155. pig-nuts = ground-nuts such as pigs root up? the round 
brown nut (bunium flexuosum) white inside and of a pleasant nutty 
flavor [Grindon's Shakes. Flora]? peanuts? — 157. marmoset = little 
American monkey? Lat. minimus, very small; O. Fr. merme, tiny; 
marmot, puppet, ape. Wore. Bracket, following Littre, derives it from 
marmoretum, a little marble figure, fr. marmor, marble. The Rue des Mar- 
mousets in Paris was in Medisev. Latin Vicus Marmoretorum. — Sir John 
Mandeville and other English writers mention the animal. — 159. scamels. 
This word has been a standing puzzle. Among the proposed emendations 
are shamois (or chamois), sea-malls, sea-mells, sea-gulls, sea-mews, stan- 
nels, scams, samols, samphire, squirrels, seeg ells, staniels, scalions, sar- 
cels, stamels, scumbles, limpets, muscles, conies, chamals, sea-owls! 
"The female Bar-tailed God wit is called a 'scamel' by the gunners of 
Blakeney. But . . . this bird is not a rock-breeder." Stevenson's Birds 
of Norfolk, quoted by Wright. — The average scholar, in the midst of 
these perplexities, may well adopt the modest attitude of Furness, who 
says: "For my part I unblushingly confess that I do not know what 
' scamels ' are, and that I prefer to retain the word in the text and to 
remain in utter, invincible ignorance. From the very beginning of the 
play we know that the scene lies in an enchanted island. Is this to be for- 
gotten? Since the air is full of sweet sounds, why may not the rocks be 
inhabited by unknown birds of gay plumage or by vague animals of a 
grateful and appetising plumpness? Let the picture remain, of the dash- 
ing rocks, the stealthy, freckled whelp, and in the clutch of his long nails, 
a young and tender scamel." Preface to Variorum Ed. of The Tempest, 
p. viii. — 162. inherit = take possession? occupy? Often used for'pos- 



80 THE TEMPEST. [ACT II. SCENE II. 

Caliban. [Sings drunkenly~] Farewell, master; farewell, 

farewell ! 
Trinculo. A howling monster ; a drunken monster ! 

Caliban. No more dams I'll make for fish ; 
Nor fetch in firing 
At requiring ; 
Nor scrape trenchering, nor wash dish . 

'Ban, 'Ban, Ca-caliban 170 

Has a new master : — get a new man. 

Freedom, high-day ! high-day, freedom ! freedom, high-day, 
freedom ! 
Stephano. brave monster ! Lead the way. [Exeunt. 



sess ' in S., TV, i, 154. — 167. trenchering. Pope and nearly all subse- 
quent editors have changed this to ' trencher,' to improve the poetry. But 
Caliban, drunk, was not an artist in verse! White objects to the curtail- 
ment on the ground, also, that " there is a drunken swing in the original 
line which is entirely lost in the precise curtailed rhythm."— 172. high- 
day! So the folios. All the editors needlessly change this to hey-day, 
which is probably a corrupted form. ' High day ' is found in Mer. of Ven., 
II, ix, 97; also in John, xix, 31, "That sabbath day was an high day." 
It makes as good sense as hey-day ? Why change it ? — ' Hey-day ' is in 
Hamlet, II, iv, 69. In Merry Wives, III, ii, 58, 59, we read, "he speaks 
holiday." —171. get = become, or will become [Furness] ? get thou (to 
Prospero) [Capell, Steevens] ? 

" Notice how a few bold strokes in this scene suffice to sketch the vices 
of a low civilization . . What a strange harmony there is between Cal- 
iban and the nature which surrounds him, and of which he is in some 
sense a part ; whence a kind of grace, which places him as much above 
the drunken and graceless European as he is below Prospero and Miranda ! 
Remark in Act III, iii, 130, how much more sensitive he is than they to 
sweetness of sound! " Phillpotts. 

Caliban is in some respects a noble being ; the poet has raised him far 
above contempt; he is a man in the sense of the imagination; all the 
images he uses are drawn from Nature and are highly poetical ; they fit 
in with the images of Ariel. Caliban gives us images from the earth, 
Ariel from the air. Caliban talks of the difficulty of finding fresh water, 
of the situation of morasses, and of other circumstances which even brute 
instinct, without reason, could comprehend. No mean figure is employed, 
no mean passion displayed, beyond animal passion and repugnance to 
command. Coleridge's Seven Lectures, 1818. 



ACT III. SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 81 



ACT III. 

Scene I. Before Prosperous Cell. 

Enter Ferdinand, bearing a log. 

Ferdinand. There be some sports are painful, and their 
labor 
Delight in them sets off ; some kinds of baseness 
Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters 
Point to rich ends. This my mean task 
Would be as heavy to me as odious, but 
The mistress which I serve quickens what's dead, 
And makes my labors pleasures. 0, she is 
Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed, 
And he's compos'd of harshness ! I must remove 
Some thousands of these logs, and pile them up, 10 

Upon a sore injunction. My sweet mistress 
Weeps when she sees me work, and says such baseness 
Had never like executor. I forget ; 
But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labors, 
Most busy, least, when I do it. 

ACT III. Scene I. 1. there be. Use of ' be ' determined by euphony 
[Furness]? Abbott, 300. — painful = causing pain? full of pains, i.e. 
painstaking ? requiring the player to take pains or employ labor. [Phila. 
Sh. Soc.] ? — " Oh, the holiness of their living and the painfulness of their 
preaching!" Fuller's Holy State, ii, 6. — 2. sets. The folio has set. 
Rowe made the change which all subsequent editors have adopted, sets 
off = compensates ? offsets ? Subject nom. of sets ? Malone quotes " The 
labor we delight in physics pain," Macb., II, iii, 31. — baseness = vile- 
ness? humbleness? — 3. most poor = poorest ? a majority of poor? — 
4. point = have a view ? tend ? are directed ? — 6. which. Inter- 
changeable with loho? Abbott, 265.-9. compos'd. Emphatic here?— 
13. Scan. Should 'never' be shortened to 'ne'er'? 'executor' ace. on 3d 
syl.? — forget. What? — 15. most busy, least, when I do it. The 
1st folio has lest; the others, least. "Compositors, we know, were apt 
to spell phonetically, accordingly we find them spelling least, lest, which 
is a pretty good guide to the pronunciation of the word." Furness, in 
footnote in his Var. Ed. of Mid. JV. Br., p. 225. — "This passage has re- 
ceived a greater number of emendations, and staggers under a heavier 
weight of comment than, I believe, any other in Shakespeare." Furness. 



82 THE TEMPEST. [ACT III. 



Enter Miranda, and Prospero at a distance. 

Miranda. Alas ! now, pray you, 

Work not so hard ; I would the lightning had 
Burnt up those logs that you are enjoin'd to pile ! 
Pray, set it down, and rest you ; when this burns, 
'Twill weep for having wearied you. My father 
Is hard at study ; pray, now, rest yourself ; 20 

He's safe for these three hours. 

Ferdinand. most dear mistress, 

The sun will set before I shall discharge 
What I must strive to do. 

Miranda. If you'll sit down, 

I'll bear your logs the while. Pray, give me that ; 
I'll carry it to the pile. 

Ferdinand. No, precious creature ; 

I had rather crack my sinews, break my back, 
Than you should such dishonor undergo, 
While I sit lazy by. 

See the twelve solid pages, 144-156, in his Var. Ed. In the magazine 
Shakespeariana, N.Y., March, 1884, the present editor suggested what he 
believes to be the true interpretation. It is in the main quoted by Fine- 
ness, page 154, Var. Ed. " Punctuate thus: Most busy, least, when I do 
it. Interpret thus: Most busy least busy (i.e. least conscious of being 
busy) when I do this work." In other words, when I think of Miranda 
and her love, toil is even restful. I forget the toil for the time, but her 
love turns the toil to refreshment, to pleasure. No change in the text is 
necessary. The line is the exact converse of Macbeth's "The rest is labor 
that is not used for you," Macb., I, iv, 44. With Macbeth repose is labor ; 
with Ferdinand, labor is repose !— ' When I do it' may mean, 'When I 
forget'; i.e. 'When I am oblivious of all but Miranda.' We may add 
that A.S. bysgian often means to fatigue. See note on line 16. — Furness, 
after wading through the tremendous pages of comment, which he has 
skilfully condensed into twelve, gives his own interpretation as follows : 
" Ferdinand has been neglecting his task to think of Miranda ; then, recol- 
lecting himself, says, in effect, I am forgetting my work — but when I do 
thus forget, my mind so teems with thoughts that I am really most busy 
when I seem to be least busy, and by these sweet thoughts I am even re- 
freshed for my work." — Note the paradoxes: in this connection, Pkill- 
potts cites Sonnet xxvii. — 16. Work not so hard. We may perhaps 
suppose that, just before, absorbed in thinking of Miranda, he had forgot- 
ten his task and stood motionless for a minute ; but now had begun 
it again with renewed heroic energy under the inspiration and joy of 
reciprocated love. At this instant she approaches unseen, and, behold- 
ing his intense toil, she exclaims "Alas, now, pray you, work not so 
hard," etc.— 19. weep. When green or wet wood burns, drops like 
hot tears are often forced out at the end of the log! Would Francis 
Bacon have so personified?— 21. safe. Like Hamlet's 'safely stowed'! 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 83 

Miranda, It would become me 

As well as it does you ; and I should do it 
With much more ease, for my good will is to it, 30 

And yours it is against. 

Prospero. Poor worm, thou art infected ! 

This visitation shows it. 

Miranda. You look wearily. 

Ferdinand. No, noble mistress ; 'tis fresh morning with 
me 
When you are by at night. I do beseech you, — 
Chiefly that I might set it in my prayers, — 
What is your name ? 

Miranda. Miranda. — my father, 

I have broken your hest to say so ! 

Ferdinand. Admir'd Miranda ! 

Indeed the top of admiration, worth 
What's dearest to the world ! Full many a lady 
I have eyed with best regard, and many a time 40 

The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage 
Brought my too diligent ear. For several virtues 
Have I lik'd several women, never any 
With so full soul but some defect in her 
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed, 
And put it to the foil ; but you, you, 

Hamlet, IV, ii, 1. — 31. against. Abbott, 203. — 32. wearily. The use 
of an adverb for an adjective with ' look ' is not uncommon in Shakes. 
See 'look merrily' in Jul. Cses., II, i, 224; Two Gen. of V., II, i, 25; Much 
Ado, II, i, 75.-33. fresh morning. Mer. of V., V, i, 127, 128; Sonnet 
xliii. — 35. set. Metaphor from the jeweler's art? Cynib., I, iii, 34, 35. — 
37. hest. I, ii, 274. — 38. top of admiration. Ferdinand seems to under- 
stand Latin x ; for Miranda = must be admired, or must be wondered at. — 
42. diligent = loving? attentive? assiduous? Lat. di- or dis-, apart, 
legere, to choose; diligere, to choose between, select; love. Skeat. — 
several = a few of ? a number of ? separate ? individual ? — Lat. se-, apart ; 
pardre, to provide ; separare, to separate. V, i, 232 ; Comus, 25 ; Nativity 
Ode, 234. — 45. owed. I, ii, 405. Own (ow-en) is orig. 'possessed.' — 
46. put it to the foil. = compel it to stand on the defensive (metaphor 
from fencing) [Hudson] ? foiled or disparaged (' foil ' being from ' fouler,' 
to trample under foot) [Meiklejohn] ? as we say, put her to the blush, 
cause her to blush [Deighton]? — Says Phillpotts, "There is difficulty in 
making out clearly the various senses of the word ' foil.' When Hamlet 
says, 'I'll be your foil, Laertes,' he means, 'I will be like the worthless 
leaf which sets off a jewel.' This first is fr. Fr. feuille, Lat. folium, a 
leaf. The foil with which Hamlet fights is, of course, a blunted weapon, 
and with it he hopes to ' foil ' Laertes. We can, perhaps, account for both 
these latter senses from the O. Fr. 'De tes commandemenz ne foliai (I did 
not go astray from thy commandments) ' ; whence also affoler is said of 



84 THE TEMPEST. [ACT III. 

So perfect and so peerless, are created 
Of every creature's best ! 

Miranda. I do not know- 

One of my sex, no woman's face remember, 
Save, from my glass, mine own ; nor have I seen 50 

More that I may call men than you, good friend, 
And my dear father. How features are abroad, 
I am skilless of ; but, by my modesty, 
The jewel in my dower, I would not wish 
Any companion in the world but you ! 
Nor can imagination form a shape, 
Besides yourself, to like of ! — But I prattle 
Something too wildly, and my father's precepts 
I therein do forget. 

Ferdinand. I am, in my condition, 

A prince, Miranda ; I do think, a king ; — 60 

I would, not so ! — and would no more endure 
This wooden slavery than to suffer 
The flesh-fly blow my mouth. Hear my soul speak : 
The very instant that I saw you, did 

a compass needle which will not point true ; so that a ' foil ' is not an un- 
natural name for that which has had its point blunted, and therefore can- 
not accurately point at anything. ' To foil a lance thrust ' is, in the same 
way, to turn it aside, to make it go astray; and the word when gen- 
eralized comes to mean to 'defeat the attacks of an adversary.'" — 
47, 48. created of every creature's best. A favorite thought with 
Shakespeare. As Y. L. I., Ill, ii, 157-160; Winter's Tale, V, i, 14, 15. 
The reader will be reminded of the composite masterpiece of Apelles or 
that of Zeuxis, or the make-up of Pandora. Steevens refers to Sidney's 
Arcadia, where the beasts, by Jupiter's permission, made themselves a 
king so compounded ! 

53. skilless. Milton (Areopagitica, our Masterpieces, pp. 229, 242) twice 
uses skill as a verb. Icel. skilja, to divide, distinguish; skil, distinction, 
discernment. Twelfth JSF., Ill, iii, 9. — 57. besides = abstractedly from, 
over and above [Schmidt] ? other than? in comparison with? — like of = 
like ?— Abbott, 111 ; Much Ado, V, iv, 59.-58. something = some matter ? 
somewhat? in some degree? I, ii, 413; Abbott, 68. — 62. wooden = per- 
taining to these logs? dull, stupid? ' Wood ' suggests poor material? So 
we say ' blockhead '!— to suffer. Supply 'endure'? Abbott, 350.— 
62. As to the metre of this line, Abbott, 478, and other precisians declare 
that the er final seems to have been sometimes pronounced with a kind of 
'burr,' which produced the effect of an additional syllable! Abbott ac- 
cordingly marks the line thus : 

This wood | en sla | very, than | to suff | er. 

This wooden slavery to supposed metrical law is dreadful, and, out of Ire- 
land, where the r has everything its own way, incredible. Better make 
a long pause after ' slavery ' ? — 63. blow = defile, pollute [Deighton] ? lay 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 85 

My heart fly to your service ; there resides, 
To make me slave to it ; and for your sake 
Am I this patient logman. 

Miranda. Do you love me ? 

Ferdinand. O heaven! earth! bear witness to this 
sound, 
And crown what I profess with kind event, 
If I speak true ; if hollowly, invert 70 

What best is boded me to mischief ! I, 
Beyond all limit of what else i' the world, 
Do love, prize, honor you. 

Miranda. I am a fool 

To weep at what I am glad of. 

Prospero. Fair encounter 

Of two most rare affections ! Heavens rain grace 
On that which breeds between 'eni ! 

Ferdinand. Wherefore weep you? 

Miranda. At mine unworthiness, that dare not offer 
What I desire to give, and much less take 
What I shall die to want. But this is trifling ; 
And all the more it seeks to hide itself, 80 

The bigger bulk it shows. Hence, bashful cunning ! 
And prompt me, plain and holy innocence ! 
I am your wife, if you will marry me ; 
If not, I'll die your maid : to be your fellow 
You may deny me, but I'll be your servant, 85 

Whether you will or no. 

maggot eggs upon [Hudson]?— Wint. T., IV, iii, 771. — 69. event. Lat. 
e, out ; venire, ventum, to come. — 70. hollowly. Meets, for M., II, iii, 23. 
How came 'hollow' to mean insincere? — 71. boded. A. S. bod, mes- 
sage ; bodian, to announce. Is the sense now uniformly unfavorable ? — 
72. what = whatsoever [Hudson]? anything [Wright] ? — 73, 74. fool, 
etc. Steevens, speaking of Shakespeare's preeminent naturalness, says, " It 
was necessary in support of the character of Miranda to make her appear 
unconscious that excess of sorrow and excess of joy find alike their relief 
in tears." Macb., I, iv, 33-35. — 75. aff ections = attachments ? — Phill- 
potts interprets thus: " What a meeting betweeu such tears and such joy! 
May the heavens rain grace upon the love which grows between them! " 
— Lear, IV, iii, 16-21. — 78. what. Betrothal? marriage? — Capell says 
it and itself in line 80 relate to what Miranda's " delicacy does not admit 
of naming, — love." — 84. your maid = a maid for your sake ; i.e. living 
unmarried all my life [Deighton] ? maid-servant [Rolfe, Meiklejohn] ? 
' Maid ' in the sense of female servant is not uncommon in New England 
villages. — fellow. I, ii, 415. "Good hay, sweet hay hath no fellow," 
says Bottom when ' translated ' to an ass. Mid. N. Br., IV, i, 31. — ' Fel- 
low ' was used of both sexes. Our Jul. Cses., Ill, i, 62.-85. servant. A 



86 THE TEMPEST. [ACT III. 

Ferdinand. My mistress, dearest, 

And I thus humble ever. 

Miranda. My husband, then? 

Ferdinand. Ay, with a heart as willing 
As bondage e'er of freedom ; here's my hand. 

Miranda. And mine, with my heart in't : and now fare- 
well 
Till half an hour hence. 

Ferdinand. A thousand thousand ! 91 

m [Exeunt Ferdinand and Miranda. 

Prospero. So glad of this as they I cannot be, 
Who are surpris'd with all ; but my rejoicing 
At nothing can be more. I'll to my book, 
For yet ere supper-time must I perform 
Much business appertaining. [Exit. 

Scene II. Another Part of the Island. 

Enter Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo. 

Stephano. Tell not me : — when the butt is out, we will 
drink water ; not a drop before : therefore bear up, and 
board 'em. — Servant-monster, drink to me. 

strikingly similar passage is quoted by Phillpotts from Catullus, lxiv, 158- 
163. Douce and Singer think Shakes, had in mind the old poem of ' The 
Nut-brown Maid . ' — 87 . thus humble. Kneeling ? — 88. willing = wish- 
ing ? desirous ? — 91. thousand thousand. Shakes, is fond of the literal 
sense. To fare is to go; farewell = ' speed well,' prosper? — 93. are. 
Hudson dares to change this to am! Many editors follow Theobald in 
printing 'withal' instead of with all. — 94. book. Much importance at- 
taches to books in this play. See in the next scene, lines 84-90; also, I, ii, 
109, 166-168 ; V, i, 57. 

" The whole courting scene," says Coleridge, " in the beginning of the 
third act, is a masterpiece ; and the first dawn of disobedience in the mind 
of Miranda to the command of her father is very finely drawn, so as to 
seem the working of the Scriptural command, Thou shalt leave father and 
mother, etc. Oh, with what exquisite purity this scene is conceived and 
executed! Shakespeare may sometimes be gross, but I boldly say that 
he is always moral and modest. Alas ! in this, our day, decency of man- 
ners is preserved at the expense of morality of heart, and delicacies for 
vice are allowed whilst grossness against it is hypocritically, or at least 
morbidly, condemned." 

Scene II. 1. Tell not me. Trinculo carried the bottle? II, ii, 162. 
Had he been talking temperance? — 2. bear up = take your course, sail 
up [Rolfe, Schmidt] ? put the helm up and keep the vessel off her course 
[Wright, Hudson, following Admiral Smyth's Sailor's Wood-Book] ? make 
for them [Meiklejohn] ? — 3. board 'em = enter their ship by force. 
Whose ship? — servant-monster. Ben Jonson in his induction to Bar- 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 87 

Trinculo. Servant-monster ! the folly of this island ! They 
say there's but five upon this isle : we are three of them ; 
if th' other two be brained like us, the State totters. 

Stephano. Drink, servant-monster, when I bid thee; thy 
eyes are almost set in thy head. 

Trinculo. Where should they be set else? he were a 
brave monster indeed, if they were set in his tail. 10 

Stephano. My man-monster hath drowned his tongue in 
sack r for my part, the sea cannot drOwn me ; I swam, ere I 
could recover the shore, five and thirty leagues off and on, 
by this light ! — Thou shalt be my lieutenant, monster, or 
my standard. 

Trinculo. Your lieutenant, if you list ; he's no standard. 

Stephano. We'll not run, Monsieur Monster. 

Trinculo. Nor go neither ; but you'll lie, like dogs, and yet 
say nothing neither. 

Stephano. Moon-calf, speak once in thy life, if thou beest 
a good moon-calf. 21 

Caliban. How does thy honor? Let me lick thy shoe. 
I'll not serve him, he is not valiant. 

Trinculo. Thou liest, most ignorant monster; I am in 
case to justle a constable. Why, thou debosh'd fish, thou, 
was there ever a man a coward that hath dTimk so much 
sack as I to-day? Wilt thou tell a monstrous lie, being 
but half a fish and half a monster ? 

Caliban. Lo, how he mocks me ! wilt thou let him, my lord ? 

Trinculo. Lord, quoth he ! — That a monster should be 
such a natural ! 30 



tholomeio Fair, written between 1612 and 1614, appears to ridicule this 
term. Thus helps fix the date of this play ? — 4. the folly, etc. Does he 
mean that Caliban is a fool ? or that Stephano has become one ? or that 
all three are idiots? — 6. brained = deprived, by violence, of brains? 
possessed of brains?— Line 85. — 8. set = fixed (in a vacant stare as if 
' dead drunk ') ? See 1 Kings, xiv, 4 ; Twelfth N., V, i, 190, 191. — 13. off 
and 011 — at intervals ? more or less? back and forth? — 14. standard. 
So 'ensign ' is sometimes used for 'ensign-bearer,' 'trumpet,' for 'trum- 
peter'; Fr. 'guidon,' cavalry flag, for him who carries it. — Note the 
verbal play on standard, Caliban being unable to stand? — 15. you list = 
it please you ? You is said to be in the dative case. — 17. go = walk ? pro- 
ceed ? — case = situation ? condition ? — 25. debosh'd. Fr. debaucher, to 
take away the balks (i.e. beams) of a building. Bracket. Wore, gives 
de, negative, and Fr. bauche, a rank, course of stones, balk or beam, the 
idea being ' that of removing the supports of a house.' The spelling in the 
text shows the pronunciation in Shakespeare's time ? — 26, 27, 30, 31. mon- 
strous . . . natural. Note the quibbles. — natural. Has this word 



88 THE TEMPEST. [ACT III. 

Caliban. Lo, lo, again ! bite him to death, I prithee. 

Stephano. Trinculo, keep a good tongue in your head ; if 
you prove a mutineer, — the next tree ! The poor monster's 
my subject, and he shall not suffer indignity. 

Caliban. I thank my noble lord. Wilt thou be pleas'd 
To hearken once again to the suit I made to thee ? 

Stephano. Marry, will I : kneel and repeat it ; I will 
stand, and so shall- Trinculo. 



Enter Ariel, invisible. 

Caliban. As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, 
A sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me 40 

Of the island. 

Ariel. Thou liest. 

Caliban. Thou liest, thou jesting monkey, thou; 
I would my valiant master would destroy thee ! 
I do not lie. 

Stephano. Trinculo, if you trouble him any more in's 
tale, by this hand, I will supplant some of your teeth. 

Trinculo. Why, I said nothing. 

Stephano. Mum, then, and no more. — Proceed. 

Caliban. I say, by sorcery he got this isle j 
From me he got it. If thy greatness will, 50 

Revenge it on him, for I know thou dar'st, 
But this thing dare not. 

Stephano. That's most certain. 

Caliban. Thou shalt be lord of it, and I'll serve thee. 

Stephano. How now shall this be compass'd ? Canst thou 
bring me to the party ? 



still the sense ' fool ' ? How did it ever get such a meaning? — 32. again 
= gibing at me [Deighton] ? — bite. Very significant word ! — 37. marry 
= By Mary ? Mary help me ? — Sound of a in Maria ? 

42. Stephano and Caliban think "Thou liest" to be spoken by Trin- 
culo? — 48. jesting monkey. Wears Trinculo the garb of the profes- 
sional jester or court fool? — 46. by this hand. An oath? a means, 
instrument or mode of ' supplanting ' ? Line 67. In Twelfth N., I, iii, 31, 
we read, "By this hand, they are scoundrels." Any appropriateness in 
swearing by the hand? — Lat. sub, under; planta, sole of the foot; sup- 
plantare, to put something under the sole of the foot, to trip up the heels, 
to overthrow. Skeat. — 50. mum. Imitative? For the subjective inter- 
nal force of the sound, see our Masterpieces in Eng. Lit., pp. 40, 61. — 55. 
compassed. Stephano feels and talks 'big'? So he says 'party'! — 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 89 

Caliban, Yea, yea, my lord ; I'll yield hira thee asleep, 
Where thou mayst knock a nail into his head. 

Ariel. Thou liest ; thou canst not. 

Caliban. What a pied ninny's this ! Thou scurvy 
patch ! — 
I do beseech thy greatness, give him blows, Gi 

And take his bottle from him : when that's gone, 
He shall drink nought but brine ; for I'll not show him 
Where the quick freshes are. 

Stephano. Trinculo, run into no further danger ; interrupt 
the monster one word further, and, by this hand, I'll turn 
my mercy out o' doors, and make a stock-fish of thee. 

Trinculo. Why, what did I ? I did nothing. I'll go 
farther off. 

Stephano. Didst thou not say he lied ? 70 

Ariel. Thou liest. 

Stephano. Do I so ? take thou that. [Beats him.'] As 
you like this, give me the lie another time. 

Trinculo. I did not give the lie. Out o' your wits, and 
hearing too ? — A pox o' your bottle ! this can sack and 
drinking do. — A murrain on your monster, and the devil 
take your fingers ! 

Caliban. Ha, ha, ha ! 

Stephano. Now, forward with your tale. — Prithee, stand 
farther off. 80 

Caliban. Beat him enough ; after a little time 
I'll beat him too. 

Stephano. Stand farther. — Come, proceed. 



58. knock a nail. Judges, iv, 21, 22. Has Miranda taught Caliban Bible 
stories? I, ii, 352; II, ii, 128. —60. pied. Lat. pica, a magpie; fr. root 
pi, imitative, a pica being a chirper. Any allusion to the magpie's colors ? 
— ninny, fr. Gaelic neoni, a fool, or shortened from nincompoop (i.e. non 
compos mentis, not sound of mind) ? or fr. Ital. ninno, a child ; ninna, a 
lullaby to rock infants to sleep. Wore, Skeat, etc. — patch. Named 
from his dress? See our Mer. of Ven., II, iv, 45.-64. quick freshes. 
In I, ii, 462, we have ' fresh-brook muscles.' Nowhere but here is ' fresh ' 
used for sweet-water springs. Quick as in Hamlet, V, i, 120; 2 Tim., 
iv, 1, etc. — 67. stock-fish. In 1 Henry IV, II, iv, 228, Falstaff addresses 
Hal, "You starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neat's tongue, you stock- 
fish! " In. Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humor, 1598, we find " Thou 
wilt be beaten like a stock-fish." The word is said to mean dried cod, 
which was beaten before boiling. " Je te frotteray a double ca?*rillon, I 
will beat thee like a stock-fish." Hollyband's French Diet., 1593. — 72. 
as=according as? if ? — 76. murrain. Lat. mori, to die. Exodus, ix, 3. 



90 THE TEMPEST. [act ill. 

Caliban. Why, as I told thee, 'tis a custom with, him 
V the afternoon to sleep ; there thou mayst brain him, 
Having first seiz'd his books, or with a log 
Batter his skull, or paunch him with a stake, 
Or cut his weasand with thy knife. Remember 
First to possess his books, for without them 
He's but a sot, as I am, nor hath not 

One spirit to command ; they all do hate him 90 

As rootedly as I. Burn but his books. 
He has brave utensils, — for so he calls them, — 
Which, when he has a house, he'll deck withal. 
And that most deeply to consider is 
The beauty of his daughter. He himself 
Calls her a nonpareil ; I never saw a woman, 
But only Sycorax my dam and she ; 
But she as far surpasseth Sycorax 
As great' st does least. 

Stephano. Is it so brave a lass ? 

Caliban. Ay, lord. 100 

Stephano. Monster, I will kill this man; his daughter 
and I will be king and queen, — save our graces ! — and 
Trinculo and thyself shall be viceroys. Dost thou like the 
plot, Trinculo ? 

Trinculo. Excellent. 

Stephano. Give me thy hand: I am sorry I beat thee; 
but, while thou livest, keep a good tongue in thy head. 

Caliban. Within this half hour will he be asleep ; 
Wilt thou destroy him then ? 

Stephano. Ay, on mine honor. 110 

84. there. In his cell? in his sleep? — brain. Line 6.— 85. books. 
I, ii, 165-168. — 86. paunch. Like brain, 84?— 87. weasand. Perhaps 
an initial h has been lost, so that weasand, the form being evidently that 
of a pres. participle, is lit. 'the wheezing thing,' the windpipe. Skeat, 
Wore— 89. sot. A. S. sot, foolish; Fr. sot, fool; Sp. zote, blockhead. 
Cotgrave's Fr. and Eng. Diet., 1660, defines sot as ' asse, dunce, dullard, 
blockhead . . . also a foole.' — 91. but = only, in two senses [Wright]? 
— 92. utensils. Milton, Par. Reg., iii, 336, appears to accent this word 
on 1st syl. — 94. that . . . consider = that which is ... to be con- 
sidered? Abbott, 244, 359, 405.— 96. non-pareil. See our Macb., Ill, 
iv, 19. — 97. Sycorax. I, ii, 258. — she. Shakes., it is said, nine times 
omits the inflection of ' she.' Abbott, 211. Furness's Othello, IV, ii, 5. 
"Mere carelessness on Shakespeare's part." R. G. White.— 99. brave. 
I, ii, 6. — 100. Ay, lord. As usual, the folio has 7. — She will become 
thy bed, I warrant. Become = adorn. — 101. And bring thee forth 
brave brood. Brave as in 99, and I, ii, 6. 



SCENE II.] THE TEMPEST. 91 

Ariel. This will I tell my master. 

Caliban. Thou mak'st me merry ; I am full of pleasure. 
Let us be jocund ; will you troll the catch 
You taught me but while-ere ? 

Stephano. At thy request, monster, I will do reason, any 
reason. — Come on, Trinculo, let us sing. [Sings. 

Flout 'em and scout 'em, and scout 'em and flout 'em; 
Thought is free. 

Caliban. That's not the tune. 

[Ariel plays the tune on a tabor and pipe. 

Stephano. What is this same ? 120 

Trinculo. This is the tune of our catch, played by the 
picture of Nobody. 

Stephano. If thou beest a man, show thyself in thy like- 
ness ; if thou beest a devil, take't as thou list. 

Trinculo. 0, forgive me my sins ! 

Stephano. He that dies pays all debts ; I defy thee. — 
Mercy upon us ! 

Caliban. Art thou af eard ? 

Stephano. No, monster, not I. 

Caliban. Be not afeared ; the isle is full of noises, 130 
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. 



113. troll = round out glibly or volubly [Hudson] ? sing in rollicking 
fashion [Meiklejohn] ? run glibly over (an imitative word) [Wright] ? sing 
irregularly [Skeat] ? — French troler, to lead, drag; O. Fr. trotter, Ger. 
trollen, Welsh trolio, Mid. E. trollen, to roll. " To troll the bowl is to send 
it round, to circulate it." Skeat. — catch. 'A part-song or round, in 
which one singer catches up the words and air after another.' "The 
words of one part are made to answer, or catch the other ; as ' Ah ! how, 
Sophia,' sung like ' a house o' fire,' ' Burney's History,' like ' burn his his- 
tory,' etc." Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time. — 114. while- 
ere = erewhile, some time ago? — A. S. aer, before; hivil, time. — Abbott, 
137. — 118. Thought is free. Note what Dowden {Shakespeare — His 
Mind and Art, 373, 376) says of Shakespeare's treatment, in this play, of 
the question, 'What is f reedom ? ' — 119. not the tune. Caliban's ear 
better than Stephano's ? — tabor = a sort of drum (beaten with one stick) ? 
a hoop with sheepskin stretched tight over it, making a kind of drum like 
a tambourine? — 121. picture of Nobody. Knight reproduces the old 
picture of 'No Body,' a figure of a head, arms, legs, without a trunk 
(body). It often appeared on sign-boards. In 1606 such a picture was 
prefixed to a comedy (privately reprinted in 1877) entitled l No-body and 
Some-body .' Some of Cruikshank's caricatures are based on this idea. 
— 124. take't as thou list = take what shape pleases thee [Rolf e] ? take 
my remark as you may please [Deighton] ? — 130-139. This savage has much 
poetry in his soul. — 134. that, etc. ' That,' without so before it, often 



92 THE TEMPEST. [ACT III. 

Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments 
Will hum about mine ears ; and sometimes voices, 
That, if I then had wak'd after long sleep, 
Will make me sleep again : and then, in dreaming, 
The clouds methought would open, and show riches 
Beady to drop upon me ; that, when I wak'd, 
I cried to dream again. 

Stephano. This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where 
I shall have my music for nothing. 140 

Caliban. When Prospero is destroy'd. 

Stephano. That shall be by and by ; I remember the story. 

Trinculo. The sound is going away ; let's follow it, and 
after do our work. 

Stephano. Lead, monster ; we'll follow. — I would I could 
see this taborer ; he lays it on. 

Trinculo. Wilt come ? [ To Caliban.'] I'll follow Stephano. 

[Exeunt. 

Scene III. Another Part of the Island. 

Enter Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, 
Francisco, and others. 

Gonzalo. By'r lakin ! I can go no further, sir ; 
My old bones ache : here's a maze trod, indeed, 
Through f orth-rights and meanders ! By your patience, 
I needs must rest me. 

expresses result. I, ii, 85. — 142. by and by = immediately ; presently? 
Matt., xiii, 21; Luke, xxi, 9; often in Shakes., as Hamlet, III, ii, 360, 362. 
— 147. Stephano. The folio puts 'Stephano' in italics with no pause 
before it. Steevens (1778) inserted a comma, as if Stephano were ad- 
dressed. Trinculo and Stephano incline to follow the music, Stephano 
going foremost. Caliban, a little disgusted, tarries. Trinculo turns to 
him and says, " Wilt come ? I'll follow Stephano." 

Scene III. 1. By'r lakin ! — Ladykin = little lady; i.e. the Virgin 
Mary. Minced oaths and dimin. nouns were common. So zounds (for 
'God's wounds'), sblood (for 'God's blood ');. sdeath, etc. The -kin is 
affectionate, as we express by the phrase 'precious little.' — 2. ache. 
I, ii, 368. The 1st folio has ' akes,' which Abbott, 333, thinks to be the old 
North-of-England 3d pers. plural. — maze = artificially constructed laby- 
rinth [Halliwell] ? — Mid. E. masen, to confuse, puzzle. Prob. the orig. 
sense was ' to be lost in thought,' to dream, from the root ma, to think 
(shorter form of man) , akin to mind. Man is the thinking animal. Skeat. 
— 3. f orth-rights = paths at right angles [Phillpotts] ? straight paths 
[Knight, Wright, Hudson, Kolfe, etc.]? straight lines [Hunter] ? — me- 
anders = crooked lines [Hudson]? circles [Knight]? winding paths 
[Rolf e] ? — The windings of the ancient river Meander are said to be due 
largely to its shifting its channel as it strolls through the sandy flats. — 



SCENE in.] THE TEMPEST. 93 

Alonso. Old lord, I cannot blame thee, 

Who am myself attached with weariness, 
To the dulling of my spirits ; sit down, and rest. 
Even here I will put off my hope, and keep it 
No longer for my flatterer ; he is drown'd 
Whom thus we stray to find, and the sea mocks 
Our frustrate search on land. Well, let him go. 10 

Antonio. [Aside to Sebastian] I am right glad that he's 
so out of hope. 
Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose 
That you resolv'd to effect. 

/Sebastian. [Aside to Antonio] The next advantage 
Will we take throughly. 

Antonio. [ Aside to Sebastian] Let it be to-night ; 
For, now they are oppressed with travel, they 
Will not, nor cannot, use such vigilance 
As when they are fresh. 

Sebastian. [Aside to Antonio - ] I say, to-night ; no more. 

[Solemn and strange music. 

Alonso. What harmony is this ? — My good friends, hark ! 

Gonzalo. Marvellous sweet music ! 

Enter Prospero above, invisible. Enter several strange 
Shapes, bringing in a banquet: they dance about it with 
gentle actions of salutation; and, inviting the King, etc., to 
eat, they depart. 

Alonso. Give us kind keepers, heavens ! — What were 

these ? 
Sebastian. A living drollery. Now I will believe 21 



5. attach'd. Fr. attacher, doublet of attaquer. Littre suggests a con- 
nection with Gael, tac, a nail. Bracket. " The regular O. F. sense was to 
'fasten,' as in Mod. Eng. . . . The earlier Eng. sense of 'arrest, seize' 
arose ... as an elliptical expression for ' attach by some tie to the control 
or jurisdiction of the court,' i.e. so that it shall have a hold. . . . The Ital. 
equivalent is attaccare. . . . Attaccare battaglia, to join battle, attac- 
carsi a, to fasten (one's self) upon, ' attack.' " Murray's New Eng. Diet. 
— Shakes, uses 'attach' repeatedly in the sense of seize. — 8. no longer 
for = no longer to be? — 10. frustrate. Shakes, often avoids adding -d 
or -ed after the sound of d or t. Abbott, 341, 342. — 12. for ego = quit, 
give up? — Would forgo be better? — The for (not fore) = from, forth, 
away? — See note on fordo in our Hamlet, V, i, 210. —14. throughly = 
thoroughly? Mer. of Ven., II, vii, 42; IV, i, 164. — 21. drollery = pup- 
pet-show. Here the figures are living. — Fr. drole, a knave, sharp rogue: 



94 THE TEMPEST. [ACT III. 

That there are unicorns ; that in Arabia 

There is one tree, the phoenix' throne, one phoenix 

At this hour reigning there. 

Antonio. I'll believe both ; 

And what does else want credit, come to me, 
And I'll be sworn 'tis true ; travellers ne'er did lie, 
Though fools at home condemn 'em. 

Gonzalo. If in Naples 

I should report this now, would they believe me ? 
If I should say I saw such islanders, — 
For, certes, these are people of the island, — 30 

Who, though they are of monstrous shape, yet, note, 
Their manners are more gentle-kind than of 
Our human generation you shall find 
Many, nay, almost any. 

Prospero. \_Aside] Honest lord, 
Thou hast said well ; for some of you there present 
Are worse than devils. 

Alonso. I cannot too much muse 

Such shapes, such gesture, and such sound, expressing — 
Although they want the use of tongue — a kind 
Of excellent dumb discourse. 

drole, a wag; Icel. troll, a hobgoblin. Skeat. — 22. unicorns. Poetically 
evolved from the rhinoceros? — Lat. unus, one; cornu, horn. — 23. phoe- 
nix. Herodotus, in Euterpe, ii, 73, and Pliny, Lib. X, ii, describe this 
bird. Herodotus tells us it "makes its appearance . . . only once in 500 
years. . . . They say that it comes on the death of its sire. If he is like 
the picture . . . the plumage of his wings is partly golden-colored and 
partly red ; in outline and size he is very like an eagle." Pliny quotes the 
noble Roman senator Mamilius as saying that the phoenix "liveth 660 
years, and when he groweth old, and begins to decay, he builds himself 
with the twigs and branches of the canell or cinnamon and frankin- 
cense trees ; and when he hath filled it up with all sorts of sweet aromat- 
ical spices, yieldeth up his life thereupon. ... It was assured unto me 
that the said bird died with that tree [date-tree, called in Greek <£<nVif, 
phoinix], and revived of itself again." Holland's translation, 1601. — It 
was commonly said that the bird was consumed in flames, and from the 
ashes sprang a new phoenix. Hence the name in fire-insurance. See 
Shakespeare's Phcenix and the Turtle, Milton's Samson Agonistes, and 
Moore's Paradise and the Peri. — 30. certes. Used by Shakes. 5 times, 
says Rolfe. — 31. who. This use of ivho, without a verb, is a Latin 
idiom, and illustrates what has been called the nominativus pendens. See 
our Mer. of Ven., I, iii, 126, note on 'Who, if he break.' — 36. muse = 
wonder [Keightley] ? wonder at [Wright, Hudson, Rolfe, etc.]? — 
Keightley puts a pause after ' muse,' and makes a broken sentence of what 
follows. — Lat. mussare, to mutter, grumble; brood over [Phillpotts] ? — 
O. Fr. muse, mouth, akin to muzzle; Ital. muso, snout, face. The image 
is that of a dog snuffing idly about, and musing which direction to take ! 



SCENE in.] THE TEMPEST. 95 

Prospero. [Aside - ] Praise in departing. 

Francisco. They vanish'd strangety. 

Sebastian. No matter, since 40 

They have left their viands behind ; for we have stomachs — 
Will't please you taste of what is here? 

Alonzo. Not I. 

Gonzalo. Faith, sir, you need not fear. When we were 
boys, 
Who would believe that there were mountaineers 
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at 'em 
Wallets of flesh ? or that there were such men 
Whose heads stood in their breasts? which now we find 
Each putter-out of five for one will bring us 
Good warrant of. 

Alonso. I will stand to and feed, 

Although my last ; no matter, since I feel 50 

The best is past. — Brother, my lord the duke, 
Stand to, and do as we. 

Thunder and lightning. Enter Ariel, like a harpy ; claps his 
wings upon the table, and with a quaint device the banquet 
vanishes. 



Skeat. — 30. Praise in departing = do not praise too soon ? — Proverbial ? 

— 45. dew-lapp'd, etc. Swiss victims of goitre, tumor on the throat 
[Lat. guttur, throat; Fr. goitre] ? — See our Mid. N. Dr., IV, i, 119.— 
46. wallets, etc. "It is not difficult to surmise that the pouched apes 
gave rise to the story." Furness. — 47. heads stood in their breasts. 
So Pliny, Nat. Hist., v, 8; Hakluyt's Voyages (1598) ; Othello, I, iii, 144. 

— 48. putter-out = one who puts to sea [Schmidt] ? investor, depositor? 

— putter-out of five = putter-out at the rate of five [Wright, Collier, 
Knight, etc.] ? — 'A popular mode of adventurous betting.' — "I intend to 
travel. ... I will put forth some £5,000, to be paid me 5 for 1, upon the 
return of my wife, myself, and my dog from the Turk's court in Constan- 
tinople. If all or either of us miscarry in the journey, 'tis gone ; if we be 
successful, why there will be £25,000." Ben Jonson's Every Man Out of 
His Humor. 

Stage direction. Enter Ariel as a harpy, etc — If a doubt could ever 
be entertained whether Shakespeare was a great poet, acting upon laws 
arising out of his own nature, and not without law, as has been sometimes 
idly asserted, that doubt must be removed by the character of Ariel. The 
very first words uttered by this being introduce the spirit, not as an angel, 
above man ; not as a gnome, or a fiend, below man ; but while the poet 
gives him the faculties and the advantages of reason, he divests him of all 
mortal character, not positively, it is true, but negatively. In air he lives, 
from air he derives his being, in air he acts ; and all his colors and proper- 
ties seem to have been obtained from the rainbow and the skies. — Cole- 
ridge's Seven Lectures. 



96 THE TEMPEST. [ACT III. 

Ariel. You are three men of sin, whom destiny, 
That hath to instrument this lower world 
And what is in't, the never-surfeited sea 
Hath caus'd to belch up — you I — and on this island, 
Where man doth not inhabit, you 'mongst men 
Being most unfit to live. I have made you mad ; 
And even with such-like valor men hang and drown 
Their proper selves. 

\_Alo7iso, Sebastian, and Antonio draw their swords. 
You fools ! I and my fellows 60 

Are ministers of Fate ; the elements, 
Of whom your swords are temper'd, may as well 
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd-at stabs 
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish 
One dowle that's in my plume. My fellow-ministers 
Are like invulnerable. If you could hurt, 
Your swords are now too massy for your strengths, 
And will not be uplifted. But remember, — 



52. Ariel in the character of a harpy, and the banquet scene, are imi- 
tated from Vergil's /Eneid, iii, 209 et seq. — men of sin. Biblical? 
2 Thess., ii, 3.-53. to instrument. II, i, 73.-54. never-surfeited, 
etc. The sea, that swallows all, cannot contain in its maw these three 
rascals, but vomits them forth ! — 55. to belch up — you ! — and. Here 
we deviate from the usual punctuation and interpretation. The common 
reading is, 'Hath caused to belch up you; and'; the common interpreta- 
tion makes ' you ' redundant, thus : " lohom destiny hath caused the never- 
surfeited sea to belch up you." Abbott (249), Collier, Wright, Hudson 
and others declare the ' you ' to be supplementary, superfluous, or even 
'extremely awkward.' Staunton and Hudson would change 'you' to 
'yea.' But suppose we adopt a different punctuation. Remember that 
three men, Alonzo, Sebastian, and Antonio, are to be singled out. They 
naturally are together, slightly apart from Gonzalo, Adrian, Francisco, 
and the others. At the words 'belch up,' the three naturally turn to 
glance at the rest, all of whom have been cast up by the nauseated sea. 
By a gesture, a look, a pause, and an intensely emphatic you, Ariel sepa- 
rates these three great sinners from the rest of the company, and notifies 
them that they alone are the 'vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.' 
Rom., ix, 22. Does not our explanation give dramatic vividness and energy 
to the otherwise bungling, tame, and feeble utterance? — 59. such-like. 
The critics pronounce this pleonastic, because such is itself shortened from 
A. S. swulc, suilc, suilch, or sich, or Gothic swa, so ; and A. S. lik, Gothic 
leiks, like. Abbott, 278. — 60. proper = appropriate ? own ? — 62. whom. 
Abbott, 264. — 63. See the somewhat similar passage in Macb., V, viii, 9, 
10.— 64. still-closing. I, ii, 229.-65. dowle = filament of a feather 
or of down? — Skeat makes cloion akin to dust, meaning that which is 
blown. Wright and others show down and dowle to be equivalent. — 
66. like = similarly ? alike? — 67. massy = bulky? heavy? massive? — 
Gr. (xacraeiv, massein, to knead ; /mafx, maza, Lat. massa, a kneaded lump, 
dough; barley bread; Fr. masse, mass, lump. — strengths. So wraths, 



SCENE in.] THE TEMPEST. 97 

For that's my business to you, — that you three, 

From Milan did supplant good Prospero, 70 

Expos' d unto the sea, which hath requit it, 

Him and his innocent child ; for which foul deed 

The Powers, delaying, not forgetting, have 

Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures, 

Against your peace. Thee of thy son, Alonso, 

They have bereft, and do pronounce by me, 

Lingering perdition — worse than any death 

Can be at once — shall step by step attend 

You and your ways ; whose wraths to guard you from, — 

Which here, in this most desolate isle, else falls 80 

Upon your heads, — is nothing but heart's sorrow, 

And a clear life ensuing. 

He vanishes in thunder; then, to soft music, enter the Shapes 
again, and dance with mocks and mows, and carry out the 
table. 

Prospero. [Aside] Bravely the figure of this harpy hast 
thou 
Perform'd, my Ariel ; a grace it had, devouring. 
Of my instruction hast thou nothing bated 
In what thou hadst to say ; so, with good life 

line 79. See on lover, our ed. of Hamlet, I, i, 173; Jul. Cses., I, ii, 39. 
Does the plural form indicate nicer discrimination? — 70. supplant. See 
on III, ii, 46. — 71. requit. See on. frustrate, line 10; I, ii, 148; Abbott, 
341, 342.-73. Powers, that ' make for righteousness.' So "They fought 
from heaven; the stars in their courses fought against Sisera," Judges, 
v, 20; Rom., ix, 22; Imke, xviii, 7; Ecclesiastes, viii, 11.— 78. at once. 
'Death at once' vs. 'lingering perdition '? — 79, 80. wraths . . . falls. 
Explain the 'singular.' Is 'wraths ' capahle of being taken as one? — 
which. ' Singular ' by attraction to the ' singular ' substantive ' isle ' 
[Wright] ? — Abbott, 247, 333, 412. — 82. clear. Macb., I, vii, 18. — " Ariel 
seems to me to represent the keenest perceiving intellect, separate from 
all moral consciousness and sense of responsibility. His power and knowl- 
edge are in some respects greater than those of his master, — he can do 
what Prospero cannot, — he lashes up the Tempest round the island, — he 
saves the king and his companions from the shipwreck, — he defeats the 
conspiracy of Sebastian and Antonio, and discovers the clumsy plot of the 
beast Caliban, — he wields immediate influence over the elements, and 
comprehends alike without indignation or sympathy, — which are moral 
results, — the sin and suffering of humanity. Therefore, — because he is 
only a spirit of knowledge, he is subject to the spirit of love." — Mrs. F. A. 
Kemble, quoted by Furness. 

82. mows. II, ii, 9.-83. bravely. Ill, ii, 99.-84. devouring = 
swallowing the banquet [Deighton] ? absorbing [Schmidt] ? appearing to 
devour [Dyce]? — 86. with good life = with all the truth of life itself, 



98 THE TEMPEST. [ACT III. 

And observation strange, my meaner ministers 

Their several kinds have done. My high, charms work, 

And these mine enemies are all knit up 

In their distractions : they now are in my power ; 90 

And in these fits I leave them, while I visit 

Young Ferdinand, — whom they suppose is drown' d, — 

And his and mine lov'd darling. [Exit above. 

Gonzalo. V the name of something holy, sir, why stand 
you 
In this strange stare ? 

Alonso. 0, it is monstrous, monstrous ! 

Methought the billows spoke, and told me of it ; 
The winds did sing it to me, and the thunder, 
That deep and dreadful organ-pipe, pronounc'd 
The name of Prosper : it did bass my trespass. 
Therefore my son i' the ooze is bedded ; and 100 

I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet sounded, 
And with him there lie mudded. [Exit. 

Sebastian. But one fiend at a time, 

I'll fight their legions o'er. 

Antonio. I'll be thy second. 

[Exeunt Sebastian and Antonio. 

Gonzalo. All three of them are desperate; their great 
guilt, 
Like poison given to work a great time after, 
Now gins to bite the spirits. — I do beseech you 



and with rare observance of the proprieties of action [Hudson, Wright] ? 
good spirit [Kolf e] ? ' With good life ' is still proverbial in the west of 
England, and signifies with the full bent or energy of the mind. Henley. 
" So we say, ' he acted to the life.' " Johnson. — 87. meaner = of lower 
rank? — Lat. medianus, medius, Fr. moyen, mean, middle, intermediate. 

— 88. several. As in III, i, 42? — kinds have done = have acted out 
their several natures, i.e. their parts [Hudson] ? acted out their characters 
[Meiklejohn] ? The clown that brings the fatal asp to Cleopatra cautions 
her by saying, " The worm will do his kind." Ant. and Cleop., V, ii, 261. 

— 92. whom ... is drowned. Confusion of two constructions, "who 
they suppose is drowned," "whom they suppose to be drowned"? 
Abbott, 410. More liberty than now in Shakespeare's day ; thus : " Whom 
do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? " Matt., xvi, 13. Even now, per- 
haps, the majority would take the same liberty. — 93. his and mine. 
Abbott, 238. — 99. bass my trespass = told in deep bass tones the story of 
my crime? — Macb:, III, iv, 122-126. — 100. Therefore = that is the true 
reason why? — Emphatic? — 102. mudded. "Any noun or adjective 
could be converted into a verb by the Elizabethan authors." Abbott, 290. 

— But one = If there be but one ? Let there be but one ? — 105. poison, 
etc. Such poisons, according to Holt (1749), and Steevens (1793), were 



SCENE in.] THE TEMPEST. 99 

That are of suppler joints, follow them swiftly, 
And hinder them from what this ecstasy 
May now provoke them to. 

Adrian. Follow, I pray you. [Exeunt. 



believed to be prepared in Africa. — 108. ecstasy. Gr. e«, ek, out, o-rao-i?, 
stasis, standing. The word is metaphoric, signifying the state of one ' out 
of his head.' See our Hamlet, II, i, 102. 

How much, if anything, of Shakespeare's religious belief may fairly be 
inferred from this remarkable scene ? 



100 THE TEMPEST. [ACT IV. 



ACT IV. 

Scene I. Before Prosperous Cell. 

Enter Prospero, Ferdinand, and Miranda. 

Prospero. If I have too austerely punish'd you, 
Your compensation makes amends, for I 
Have given you here a third of mine own life, 
Or that for which I live ; who once again 
I tender to thy hand. All thy vexations 
Were but my trials of thy love, and thou 
Hast strangely stood the test ; here, afore heaven, 
I ratify this my rich gift. Ferdinand, 
Do not smile at me that I boast her of, 



ACT IV. Scene I. 3. third. So the folios. But why taird? How 
make a three-fold divisiou of his ' life ' ? Holt supposes Prospero and 
Miranda to he two thirds, and Ferdinand the remaining third. Capell 
(Furness concurring) thinks the realm, the daughter, and the father con- 
stitute the three thirds of the 'life.' E. Magnusson (Athenaeum, July 26, 
1884) is quoted by Furness to this effect: "His life's triunity had, once 
upon a time, consisted of his now departed wife, his child, and himself," 
hut Magnusson now concurs with Capell. Theobald, in March, 1728, sug- 
gested that the true reading was thrid, for third, and that what was meant 
was thread. Most subsequent editors have printed thread; Tollett, the 
Globe ed., Wright, and Phillpotts read thrid; Heath, the thread; Bailey, 
the end. To us, 'a thread,' however classic and suggestive of the three 
fatal spinners, seems a feeble utterance for one who is in a mood to 
magnify his gift to Ferdinand. Any one of a dozen children would be a 
thread. Guessing " is the word : it is a deed in fashion"! Shakespeare 
had perhaps read in the Carmen Nuptiale of Catullus, Virginitas non 
tota tua est : ex parte parentum est : Tertia pars patri data, pars 
data tertia matri, Tertia sola tua est, Maidenhood is not all thine: 
it partly belongs to thy parents ; a third part given to father, a third 
part to mother, a third is thine alone. Here are three, Prospero, Miranda, 
Ferdinand : they shall share equally in her who is ' my life.' For twelve 
years or more (see I, ii, 16, 17, and King John, III, iv, 101) that 'life ' had 
belonged to tivo, father and daughter ; now it shall be parted among three. 
— Shakes, may combine several meanings in this 'third.' — 7. afore. 
Rom., ix, 23. — 9. boast her of = boast of her? — Keightley reads boast 
of her, and Furness approves. We follow the 1st folio. All the other 
folios and all the editors read boast her off; a reading, says Furness, 
" which somehow carries with it the image of an auctioneer's exaggeration 
and volubility, which is, as Sydney Smith would say, ' infinitely distress- 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 101 

For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise, 10 

And make it halt behind her. 

Ferdinand. I do believe it 

Against an oracle. 

Prospero. Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition 
Worthily purchased, take my daughter : but 
If thou dost break her virgin-knot before 
All sanctimonious ceremonies may 
With full and holy rite be minister'd, 
No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall 
To make this contract grow ; but barren hate, 
Sour-eyed disdain, and discord shall bestrew 20 

The union — with weeds so loathly 
That you shall hate it both : therefore take heed, 
As Hymen's lamps shall light you. 

Ferdinand. As I hope 

For quiet days, fair issue, and long life, 
With such love as 'tis now, the strong' st suggestion 
Our worser genius can, shall never melt 
Mine honor into lust, to take away 

ing.' " — 11. halt. Mer. of Ven., Ill, ii, 129; Wint. T., V, iii, 52,53.-13. 
gift. The folios have guest. Rowe (1709) and all subsequent editors read 
gift. Any good reason for retaining guest? —15. virgin-knot = maiden 
zone or belt. This girdle was unclasped by the husband at the wedding. 
Prospero's care! He is both father and mother to her; she so young, 
motherless, and loving, like Mildred in Browning's Blot in the 'Scutcheon, 
II, 361, 362. —16. sanctimonious. Whence originates the modern un- 
favorable sense? — 18. aspersion. Lat. ad, to; spargere, to scatter; 
aspergere, to sprinkle; aspersio, sprinkling. Any allusion to sprinkling 
with ' holy water '? — Whence the present ill use of the word? — 21. The 
union of your bed with weeds so loathly, etc. Is this the order 
of ideas : shall bestrew the union of your bed with so loathly [i.e. disgust- 
ing, loathsome] weeds ? — 22. That you shall hate it both = that both 
of you shall hate it? — 23. Hymen's lamps. Elze shows that 'lamps' 
of the folio should be ' lamp.' See line 97. Furness approves the correc- 
tion. It seems, however, to be unimportant. — Hymen was the handsome 
youthful god of the marriage ceremony, not of married life. He is son of 
Apollo, carries in his hand a bridal torch. See in our Masterpieces, note, 
p. 78. — 25. as 'tis now, the murkiest den. A. S. mure, dark ; related 
to ixikas, melas, black.— 26. The most opportune place, the strong'st, 
etc. Shakes, twice uses opportune. He accents the 2d syl. — 27. worser. 
Used by Shakes. 17 times. — Abbott, 11. — genius. Shakes, seems to 
recognize two 'geniuses,' a guardian angel, and an evil tempter. "In 
mediaeval theology, the rational soul is an angel, the lowest in the 
hierarchy for being clothed for a time in the perishing vesture of the 
body. But it is not necessarily an angel of light." Edinburgh Review, 
July, 1869, p. 98. — See our ed. of Jul. Cass., II, i, 66; our Macb., Ill, i, 55. 
— can. Ellipsis? Hamlet, IV, vii, 83; Abbott, 307. — melt. TimonofA., 
IV, iii, 365—367.-28. lust, to take away. Supply 'so as' before 'to 



102 THE TEMPEST. [ACT IV. 

The edge of that day's celebration 

When I shall think, or Phoebus' steeds are founder'd, 30 

Or night kept chain'd below. 

Prospero. Fairly spoke. 

Sit then and talk with her ; she is thine own. — 
What, Ariel ! my industrious servant, Ariel ! 

Enter Ariel. 

Ariel. What would my potent master ? here I am. 
Prospero. Thou and thy meaner fellows your last service 
Did worthily perform, and I must use you 
In such another trick. Go bring the rabble, 
O'er whom I give thee power, here to this place. 
Incite them to quick motion, for I must 
Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple 40 

Some vanity of mine art ; it is my promise, 
And they expect it from me. 

Ariel. Presently ? 

Prospero. Ay, with a twink. 
Ariel. Before you can say ' come ' and ' go/ 
And breathe twice, and cry e so, so,' 
Each one, tripping on his toe, 
Will be here with mop and mow. — 
Do you love me, master ? no ? 
Prospero. Dearly, my delicate Ariel. Do not approach 
Till thou dost hear me call. 

Ariel. Well, I conceive. [Exit. 



take ' ? — 29. The edge of that day's celebration = the keen enjoy- 
ment of the celebration of our wedding-day [Jephson] ? The -ion in cele- 
bration is resolved in scanning into two syllables. — 30. or = either? — 
Phoebus' = the sun-god's. See our Hamlet, III, ii, 138. — founder'd. 
" The signe to know it [foundering of horses] is, the horse cannot go, but 
will stand cripling with al his foure legs together." Topsell's Hist, of 
Foure-footed Beasts, 1608, quoted by Furness. — 31. chained. As the 
sun's chariot goes down in the west, night's car ascends in the east ; both 
so slowly that it seems as if the evening's festivities would never come. — 
spoke. Abbott, 338.-37. rabble = lower spirits? Stephano, Trinculo, 
etc.? — "Not used slightingly." Furness. — O. Du. rabbelen, to chatter. 
Gr. pajSio-o-etv, rabassein, to make a noise. The suffix -le gives a frequent- 
ative force. Skeat. — 41. vanity = illusion [Steevens] ? Psalms, xxxix, 6 ; 
Ecclesiastes, xii, 8. — 42. presently. I, ii, 125. — 43. twink = twink- 
ling? — A. S. twiccan, to twitch; tivinclian, to twinkle; twink is nasalized 
from twiccian. Skeat. — 47. mop. Du. moppen, Local Ger. muffen, to 
sulk; Eng. mop and mope, to grimace, —mow. Ill, iii, 82; II, ii, 9.— 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 103 

Prospero. Look thou be true ; do uot give dalliance 51 
Too much the rein : the strongest oaths are straw 
To the fire i' the blood. 

Ferdinand. I warrant you, sir ; 

The white cold virgin snow upon my heart — 

Prospero. Well. — 

Now come, my Ariel ! bring a corollary, 
Rather than want a spirit ; appear, and pertly ! — 
No tongue ! all eyes ! be silent. [Soft music. 

Enter Iris. 

Iris. Ceres, most bounteous lady, thy rich leas 60 

Of wheat, rye, barley, vetches, oats, and pease ; 
Thy turfy mountains, where live nibbling sheep, 
And flat meads thatch'd with stover, them to keep ; 
Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims, 

51. dalliance. A. S. dol, foolish ; Du. dioalen, to be foolish. — 52. rein. 
Lat. re, back, tenere, to hold; retinere, to hold back; retinaculum, a hold- 
back, tether, baiter, rein. Fr. rene, bridle strap, rein. Skeat, Bracket. — 
53. To the fire i' the blood; be more abstemious. To the, fire, etc. 
So we speak of ' fetters of flax to bind the flame.' Abstemious, Skeat 
derives fr. Lat. abs, from, and obsolete temum, strong drink. — 54. Or else 
good night your vow! Lines 23-28. — 55. The white cold virgin 
snow. Shakespeare is fond of this imagery. Coriolanus, V, iii, 64-67. — 

56. Abates the ardor of my liver. Capell cites from Elyot's Castle 
of Health, 1610, the converse, " that the heat of the heart may vanquish 
the colde of the liver." — The liver was the supposed seat of the passions, 
particularly love. As You L. I., Ill, ii, 390; Mer. of Ven., I, i, 81. — 

57. corollary = supernumerary, surplus, an extra. Gr. Kopwr), korone, 
curved end of a bow; Welsh crion, round; Lat. corona, garland, crown; 
corolla, little crown; corollarium, gift of a garland besides the regular 
pay; a gratuity; the gift of an actor in addition to his wages. Wore, 
Bracket, etc.— 58. want. Emphatic? — 58. pertly. W. pert, smart, 
spruce. — 59. silent. In the presence of supernatural beings in Shakes., 
silence is enjoined. IV, i, 124-127 ; Macb., IV, i, 70, " Hear his speech, but 
say thou nought." — "Prospero surrounds the marriage of Ferdinand to 
his daughter with a religious awe. Ferdinand must honor her as sacred, 
and win her by hard toil. But the work of the higher imagination is not 
drudgery — it is swift and serviceable among all the elements — fire upon 
the topmast, the sea-nymphs upon the sands, Ceres, the goddess of earth, 
with harvest blessings, in the Masque. — It is essentially Ariel, an airy 
spirit — the imaginative genius of poetry, but recently delivered in Eng- 
land from long slavery to Sycorax." — Edward Doioden. 

60. leas. A. S. leak, field. — 61. vetches. Leguminous plants. In 
folio fetches, still pronounced so in portions of England ; the fetches of 
Isaiah, xxviii, 25, 27 ; Ezek., iv, 9. — 63. stover. Coarse winter fodder for 
cattle? O. Fr. estover, necessaries, provisions; akin probably to stow, or 
to Lat. stare, to stand ? — 64. pioned and twilled brims. Of these four 



104 THE TEMPEST. [ACT IV. 

Which spongy April at thy hest betrims, 

To make cold nymphs chaste crowns; and thy broom 

groves, 
Whose shadow the dismissed bachelor loves, 
Being lass-lorn ; thy pole-clipt vineyard ; 
And thy sea-marge, sterile and rocky-hard, 
Where thou thyself dost air ; — the queen o' the sky, 70 

Whose watery arch and messenger am I, 
Bids thee leave these, and with her sovereign grace, 
Here on this grass-plot, in this very place, 
To come and sport. Her peacocks fly amain ; 
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain. 

words the innumerable emendations and explanations are ' tedious as a 
king,' 'most tolerable and not to be endured,' to use Dogberry's happy- 
phrases. See the Var. Ed. of Furness, who says, "We have simply lost 
the meaning of words which were perfectly intelligible to Shakespeare's 
audience. As agricultural or horticultural terms, ' pioned ' and ' twilled ' 
will be some day, probably, sufficiently explained to enable us to weave 
from them the chaste crowns for cold nymphs." With Hudson, Phillpotts, 
and Deighton, we have felt inclined to adopt Dr. T. S. Baynes's explana- 
tion in the Edinburgh Revieio, of October, 1872, confirmed as it seemed to 
be by our own observation at Stratford in 1882, as follows : " Twilled is 
the very word to describe the crowded sedges in the shallower reaches 
of the Avon as it winds around Stratford. It was, indeed, while watching 
the masses of waving sedge cutting the water line of the Avon, not far 
from Stratford Church, that we first felt the peculiar force and significance 
of the epithet. And although the season was too far advanced for the 
reeds to be brightened by the flowers of the marsh marygold [called peony 
by the Warwickshire peasantry], the plant was abundant enough to glorify 
the banks in the early spring. The whole line, therefore, gives a vivid 
and truthful picture of what is most characteristic of water margins at 
that period of the year." Thus far Baynes; but able botanists deny his 
conclusions. See Furness. — line 129; Lycidas, 104. — 65. spongy = full 
of moisture as a wet sponge? — 66. broom groves = woods overgrown 
with genista, pathless woods [Schmidt]? — 67. See on bachelerie in our 
Masterpieces, p. 27. — 68. lass-lorn. Lass, fern, of lad, shortened fr. lad- 
dess ! The -ess is for -es, which is a Welsh fern, ending. Lorn {lo-ren) is 
old past part, of lose. Skeat. — pole-clipt = clipped as with shears so as 
to be trained to poles [Jephson, Delius] ? with vines twined about the poles, 
embracing the poles [Wright, Phillpotts]? with poles clipped or twined 
about, embraced, clasped, by vines [Steevens, Dyce, Hudson, Meikle- 
john]? — A. S. clyppan, to embrace; Icel. hlippa, to cut, shear the hair. 
The orig. sense was to draw tightly together. Skeat. — vineyard. 
Trisyl. ?— 69. sea-marge. A. S. meark, mark ; akin to Lat. mar go, mar- 
gin.— 71. Juno's messenger identifies herself with the rainbow? Says 
Hartley Coleridge, "Shakespeare manifestly turns the heathen deities into 
the elementary powers, resolving Greek anthropomorphism into its first 
principles. Ceres is the earth." — 73. to come. Like to suffer, III, i, 
62? — 74. peacocks draw Juno's car? — amain. A. S. on, (later) an. 
(latest) a = in, with. A. S. magen, strength. II, i, 180. 'Might' and 
'main,' like 'mop' and 'mow,' are almost, if not quite, exact equiva- 
lents. 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 105 



Enter Ceres. 

Ceres. Hail, many-color'd messenger, that ne'er 
Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter ; 
Who, with thy saffron wings, upon my flowers 
Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers, 
And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown 
My bosky acres and my unshrubb'd down, 
Rich scarf to my proud earth ! Why hath thy queen 
Summon'd me hither, to this short-grass'd green? 

Iris. A contract of true love to celebrate, 
And some donation freely to estate 
On the blest lovers. 

Ceres. Tell me, heavenly bow, 

If Venus or her son, as thou dost know, 
Do now attend the queen ? Since they did plot 
The means that dusky Dis my daughter got, 
Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company 
I have forsworn. 

Iris. Of her society 

Be not afraid ; I met her deity 
Cutting the clouds towards Paphos, and her son 
Dove-drawn with her. Here thought they to have done 
Some wanton charm upon this man and maid, 
Whose vows are, that no bed-right shall be paid 
Till Hymen's torch be lighted : but in vain ; 
Mars's hot minion is return' d again ; 
Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows, 



78. saffron. Vergil's Mneid, iv, 700, seems in Shakespeare's mind. 
— 81. bosky. Ital. bosco, busk; fr. Mid. Lat. boscus, a wood. Milton has 
'bosky bourn,' i.e. woody bourn. — down = large open plain? sandy 
hill? — A. S. dun. — 85. estate = settle? endow?— Fr. etat, fr. Lat. status, 
state. — 89. that . . . got, etc. = which obtained my daughter for Dis? 
by which Dis obtained my daughter? — Dis. Lat. dives, rich. When S. 
wants a monosyl. for the name, 'Bis' suffices; when a dissyl., 'Pluto.' 
The king of the realm of shades is poetically characterized as ' dusky ' ; 
just as in Virgil, atrl Ditis, of black Pluto, JEneid, vi, 127. — Milton has 
' gloomy Dis ' in Par. Lost, iv, 270. — 93. Paphos. Near Old Paphos on 
the west coast of Cyprus, sea-born Venus (Gr. Aphrodite) first floated 
ashore. S. has in mind JEneid, i, 415-417? — 94. dove-drawn. So 
usually represented. Horace makes her chariot to be drawn by swans. — 
96. vows are. We should say 'vow is.' See III, iii, 79. — that no, etc. 
= there shall be no consummation of the union. — Hymen's. Line 23. — 
98. minion = favorite. See our Macb., I, ii, 19. Venus of course is 



106 THE TEMPEST. [act IV. 

Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows, 100 
And be a boy right out. 

Ceres. Highest queen of state, 

Great Juno comes ; I know her by her gait. 

Enter Juno. 

i Juno. How does my bounteous sister ? Go with me 

To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be, 

And honor'd in their issue. [They sing. 



Juno. Honor, riches, marriage, 

Long continuance, and increasing 

Hourly joys be still upon you ! 

Juno sings her blessings on you. 

Earth'' s increase, and foison plenty, 110 

Barns and garners never empty, 

Vines with clustering bunches groiving, 

Plants with goodly burthen bowing ; 

Spring come to you at the farthest 

In the very end of harvest I 

Scarcity and want shall shun you; 

Ceres' blessing so is on you. 

Ferdinand. This is a most majestic vision, and 
Harmonious charmingly. May I be bold 
To think these spirits ? 

Prospero. Spirits, which by mine art 120 



meant. — 101. right out = outright ? complete ? — 102. gait. It was ma- 
jestic. AUneid, i, 46, 405. Supernatural beings glide, not walk! Par. 
Lost, xii, 629, 630. " In gliding state she wins her easy way." Spoken of 
Venus in Gray's Progress of Poesy, 39. — 110. and foison. For foison, 
see II, i, 160. — The first folio omits and. Omitting and, Abbott would 
make a trisyl. of in-cre-ease ! Allen, a dissyl. of e-earth's ! Wright would 
make earth's into earth-es, as moon into moon-es in Mid. JV. Dr., II, i, 7. 
Says Furness, " Shakespeare always, I think, makes 'increase' an iamb. 
. . . Wherefore it seems to me that the simplest way is to accept the 
and." — Psalms, lxvii, 6. — Following the example of Theobald, all sub- 
sequent editors, except Holt and Furness, give lines 110-117 to Ceres. But 
the stage direction, They sing, would seem to imply that all three, Juno, 
Iris, and Ceres, all sing. — 114. spring, etc. Levit., xxvi, 4, 5; Amos, 
ix, 13; Faerie Q., Ill, vi, 42. So in the garden of Alcinous, Odyssey, 
vii, 115-125. — 119. harmonious charmingly = charmingly harmonious 
[Hudson] ? harmonious ; charmingly ! [Holt] ? harmoniously charming 
[Steevens] ? " Staunton with truth says that ' charmingly ' here imports 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 107 

I have from their confines call'd to enact 
My present fancies. 

Ferdinand. Let me live here ever • 

So rare a wonder'd father and a wife 
Makes this place Paradise. 

[Juno and Ceres whisper, and send Iris on employment. 

Prospero. Sweet now, silence ! 

Juno and Ceres whisper seriously ; 
There's something else to do : hush, and be mute, 
Or else our spell is marr'd. 

Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the windring 
brooks, 
With your sedg'd crowns and ever harmless looks, 
Leave your crisp channels, and on this green land 130 

Answer your summons ; Juno does command. 
Come, temperate nymphs, and help to celebrate 
A contract of true love ; be not too late. — 



Enter certain Nymphs. 

You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary, 
Come hither from the furrow, and be merry. 
Make holiday ; your rye-straw hats put on, 



magically, not delightfully." Furness. So Meiklejohn. — 121. confines. 
Lat. con, together; finis, boundary; Lat. confines, borders, boundaries. 
In Hamlet, I, i, 155, confine seems to mean bound which must not be 
passed, or place of confinement. — 123. wise. Some copies of folio 1 
have 'wife,' and some 'wise.' The majority prefer 'wise.' White says, 
"To read 'wife' is to degrade the poetical feeling of the passage." So 
it is, if the passage merely means so wonderful a father plus a wife! On 
the other hand, if it means merely that Prospero is rarely wonderful and 
very wise ! what a paradise ! made up of a wonderful father and his 
wisdom! — Hudson suggests that we should 'extend the meaning' of 'so 
rare a wondered ' (i.e. ' so rarely wonderful ') to wife. So rarely wonder- 
ful a father and so rarely wonderful (and the word Miranda means to be 
wondered at) a wife ! these in combination may well make a paradise for 
the young prince. Such extension of meaning is quite Shakespearian. 
— 237. marr'd, etc. Line 59. — 128. Naiads = fresh water nymphs ? Gr. 
vdeiv, naein, to flow. — windring. So the folios, 'wandering,' 'wand'- 
ring,' ' winding,' ' wiring,' have been suggested. Wright compares wilder- 
ness for ' wildness,' in Meas. for Meas., Ill, i, 141. We might add augurers 
for 'augurs,' Jul. Cass., II, ii, 37. Is there not in windring a notion or 
feeling of intelligence on the part of the brooks, as if they, like persons, 
were directors of their own windings, and not simply passive ? — 130. crisp. 
Milton has ' crisped brooks,' Par. Lost, iv, 237 ; and ' crisped shades,' 
Comus, 984. Lat. crispus, curled. The channel looks curled under the ripples 



108 THE TEMPEST. [ACT IV. 

And these fresh nymphs encounter every one 
In country footing. 

Enter certain Reapers, properly habited : they join with the 
Nymphs in a graceful dance; towards the end whereof Pros- 
pero starts suddenly, and speaks; after which, to a strange, 
hollow, and confused noise, they heavily varnish. 

Prospero. [Aside] I had forgot that foul conspiracy 
Of the beast Caliban and his confederates 140 

Against my life ; the minute of their plot 
Is almost come. — [To the Spirits'] Well done ! Avoid; no 
more! 

Ferdinand. This is strange ; your father's in some passion 
That works him strongly. 

Miranda. Never till this day 

Saw I him touch' d with anger so distemper'd. 

Prospero. You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort, 
As if you were dismay'd ; be cheerful, sir. 
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, 
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and 

Are melted into air, into thin air ; 150 

And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, 

through which the sunshine makes the lights and shadows wind and flit 
on the sandy bottom. — 138. footing. I, ii, 377. 

142. Avoid = vacate (this place)? — Fr. vider la maison. — O. Fr. 
avoider, to empty ; fr. Lat. ex, out ; viduare, to empty. Avoid was the 
common phrase in bidding a spirit begone. — 145. distemper'd. Hamlet, 
III, ii, 280; Abbott, 439. —Why distempered? From the sense of all in- 
juries, past and present, surging upon his mind at once [Phillpotts] ? — 
146. It is hard to believe that Shakes, wrote this line as it stands. Ab- 
bott's suggestion (483) is plausible, viz.: " Perhaps aware of Ferdinand's 
comment on his emotion, 'your father's in some passion,' Prospero turns 
to Ferdinand and says, ' it is you who are moved,' in 

'You | do look | my son | in a | mov'd sort.' " 

Might we not still further avoid the awkwardness by printing ' moved ' in 
place of mov'd ? thus : 

" You | do look | my son | in a mov | ed sort." 

— sort. See II, i, 100; our Jul. Cses., I, ii, 201. — 149. foretold. Line 
120. — 150. into thin air. A recollection of in tenues auras, into thin air, 
^Eneid, ii, 791. — 154. inherit. Furness thinks it probable that it (mean- 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 109 

And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 

As dreams are made on, and our little life 

Is rounded with a sleep. — Sir, I am vex'd ; 

Bear with my weakness ; my old brain is troubled. 

Be not disturb'd with my infirmity : 160 

If you be pleas'd, retire into my cell 

And there repose ; a turn or two I'll walk, 

To still my beating mind. 

Ferdinand. Miranda. We wish your peace. [Exeunt. 

Prospero. Come with a thought. I thank thee, Ariel : come ! 

Enter Ariel. 

Ariel. Thy thoughts I cleave to. What's thy pleasure ? 

Prospero. Spirit, 

We must prepare to meet with Caliban. 

Ariel. Ay, my commander ; when I presented Ceres, 
I thought to have told thee of it, but I fear'd 
Lest I might anger thee. 169 

ing globe) is the subject, and which (meaning which things) the object, of 
inherit, the s, needed to convert ' inherit ' into inherits, being present in 
the s of the succeeding ' shall.' Test ! — II, ii, 162. — 155. pageant = great 
and splendid show? Our Mer. of Ven., I, i, 11; Furness's The Tempest, 
p. 212. — 156. rack = scudding or drifting clouds? Icel. rek, drift, mo- 
tion ; sky rek, drifting clouds. The orig. sense of wreck or wrack is ' that 
which is drifted or driven ashore.' Skeat. Our Hamlet, II, ii, 470. So in 
Moore's Fire Worshippers, 

" The day is lowering : stilly black 
Sleeps the grim wave, while heaven's rack, 
Dispersed and wild, 'twixt earth and sky 
Hangs like a shattered canopy." 

Shakes, seems to anticipate the deductions of science. Langley, in his The 
Neio Astronomy, tells how universes come and go like clouds successively 
forming and dissolving. Psalms, cii, 25, 26 ; 2 Peter, iii, 10; Rev., xx, 11 ; 
xxi, 1. — 157. on. I, ii, 87. " Something could be said in favor of its re- 
taining its ordinary meaning of upon." Furness. — 158. rounded = 
completed, finished off as with a crown [Wright] ? rounded off with (the 
sleep of death) [Hudson]? — "Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting." 
Wordsworth. — Nos petites vies sont les isles clu sommeil. Darmesteter. 
Hamlet, III, i, 60-82; Jul. Cses., V, iii, 24, 25; Lear, V, iii, 175; Richard 
II, III, ii, 160, 161. — This magnificent passage, lines 150-158, is sometimes 
absurdly quoted to prove Shakes, an atheist; e.g. by Birch, Philosophy 
and Religion of Shakespeare, 1848; Douglas Campbell, Puritans in Eng- 
land, Holland, and America, 1894; but see I, ii, 159; III, iii, 72-82. 

164. with a thought. " With a thought, seven of the eleven I paid." 
I Henry IV, II, iv, 202, 203. — 166. meet with = encounter, oppose [Hud- 
son, Wright, Deighton] ? — 167. presented = represented, played? — 



110 THE TEMPEST. [ACT IV. 

Prospero. Say again, where didst thou leave these varlets ? 

Ariel. I told you, sir, they were red-hot with drinking; 
So full of valor that they smote the air 
For breathing in their faces, beat the ground 
For kissing of their feet, yet always bending 
Towards their project. Then I beat my tabor, 
At which, like unback'd colts, they prick' d their ears, 
Advanc'd their eyelids, lifted up their noses 
As they smelt music ; so I charm'd their ears 
That, calf -like, they my lowing follow' d through 
Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking gorse, and thorns, 180 
Which enter'd their frail shins : at last I left them 
I' the filthy mantled pool beyond your cell, 
There dancing up to the chins, that the foul lake 
O'erstunk their feet. 

Prospero. This was well done, my bird. 

Thy shape invisible retain thou still ; 
The trumpery in my house, go bring it hither, 
For stale to catch these thieves. 

Ariel. I go, I go. [Exit. 

Prospero. A devil, a born devil, on whose nature 
Nurture can never stick ; on whom my pains, 
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost ; 190 

And as with age his body uglier grows, 
So his mind cankers. I will plague them all, 
Even to roaring. — 

Enter Ariel, loaden with glistering apparel, etc. 
Come hang them on this line. 

174. kissing of. I, ii, 100.— 175. tabor. Ill, ii, 119. —176. unback'd. 
Mer. of Yen., V, i, 71. — 177. advanc'd. I, ii, 407. — 180. tooth'd = 
dentate ? — furzes = thorny evergreen with yellow flowers ? — gorse = 
thick prickly shrub akin to furze? — 182. mantled = scum-covered ? — 
O. Fr. mantel, later manteau, a cloak; Lat. mantellum, a napkin; also, 
as a means of covering, a cloak. The orig. sense seems to be 'covering.' 
Compare A. S. mentel, a mantle. Skeat. — 184. bird. ' Chick,' V, i, 317. 
— 186, trumpery. Fr. trompe, a trumpet; trompe?', to deceive; trom- 
perie, craft, wily fraud. Skeat. The orig. sense was to play on the 
trump, or trumpet. Littre. Tromper, properly to play the horn, alluding 
to quacks and mountebanks. Bracket. — 187. stale = decoy, snare? — 
A. S. statu, theft; stelan, to steal. Probably 'steal' meant 'to put by.' 
Skeat. Autolycus, in Winter's T. , was ' a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles.' 
193. glistering. Shakes, and Milton do not use glisten. — line = 
linden or lime-tree? clothes-line? The players used to stretch up a 
clothes-line on the stage ; and Knight, Dyce, Staunton, and others think 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPESZ 111 

Prospero and Ariel remain invisible. Enter Caliban, 
Stephano, and Trinculo, all wet. 

Caliban. Pray you, tread softly, that the blind mole may 
not 
Hear a foot fall ; we now are near his cell. 

Stephano. Monster, your fairy, which you say is a harm- 
less fairy, has done little better than played the Jack with us. 

Trinculo. Monster, I do smell all horse — at which 
My nose is in great indignation. 

Stephano. So is mine. — Do you hear, monster ? If I 
should take a displeasure against you, look you, — 

Trinculo. Thou wert but a lost monster. 200 

Caliban. Good my lord, give me thy favor still. 
Be patient, for the prize I'll bring thee to 
Shall hoodwink this mischance ; therefore speak softly. 
All's hush'd as midnight yet. 

Trinculo. Ay, but to lose our bottles in the pool, — 

Stephano. There is not only disgrace and dishonor in 
that, monster, but an infinite loss. 

Trinculo. That's more to me than my wetting ; yet this 
is your harmless fairy, monster. 

Stephano. I will fetch off my bottle, though I be o'er ears 
for my labor. 211 

Caliban. Prithee, my king, be quiet. Seest thou here, 
This is the mouth o' the cell ; no noise, and enter. 
Do that good mischief which may make this island 
Thine own for ever, and I, thy Caliban, 
For aye thy foot-licker. 

Stephano. Give me thy hand. I do begin to have bloody 
thoughts. 



they were right in so doing, while Hunter, Wright, Brae, Rolfe, insist that 
a line-tree is meant. The battle is still on, and, like Grant, they "will 
fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." — 194. blind mole = 
Prospero ? ellipsis of even ? — Moles were supposed blind, but with hearing 
preternaturally acute. — 197. Jack = jack o' lantern, will o' the wisp, 
ignis fatuus that leads into the bogs ? the knave (with an allusion to 
cards)? II, ii, 6. — 201. Good my lord. In such expressions ' my lord ' 
' my liege,' etc., seem compound nouns, like Fr. monsieur, Du. mynheer. 
See our Jul. Cses., II, i, 255; our Hamlet, I, ii, 50. — Abbott, 484, thinks 
this ' good ' a dissyl., as if Caliban had said Goo-dod ! — 203. hoodwink = 
blindfold ? conceal ? impose upon ? — See our Hamlet, III, iv, 64 ; our Mac- 
beth, IV, iii, 72. —215. I. Like ' I ' in ' between you and /,' Mer. of Yen., 
Ill, ii, 313? or is 7 the subject of will be, understood? Abbott, 209.— 



112 THE TEMPEST. [ACT IV. 

Trinculo. King Stephano ! peer ! worthy Ste- 
phano ! look what a wardrobe here is for thee ! 220 

Caliban. Let it alone, thou fool ; it is but trash. 

Trinculo. 0, ho, monster! we know what belongs to a 
frippery. — King Stephano ! 

Stephano. Put off that gown, Trinculo ; by this hand ! I'll 
have that gown. 

Trinculo. Thy grace shall have it. 

Caliban. The dropsy drown this fool! What do you 
mean, 
To dote thus on such luggage ? Let's alone, 
And do the rimfther first ; if he awake, 
From toe to crown he'll fill our skins with pinches, 230 

Make us strange stuff. 

Stephano. Be you quiet, monster. — Mistress line, is not 
this my jerkin ? Now is the jerkin under the line ; now, 
jerkin, you are like to lose your hair, and prove a bald 
jerkin. 

Trinculo. Do, do; we steal by line and level, an't like 
your grace. 

Stephano. I thank thee for that jest; here's a garment 
f or't : wit shall not go unrewarded while I am king of this 
country. ' Steal by line and level ' is an excellent pass of 
pate ; there's another garment f or't. 240 

Trinculo. Monster, come, put some lime upon your fingers, 
and away with the rest. 



220. wardrobe. As will be seen by the version in Percy's Eeliques, the 
' wardrobe ' is especially prominent in the old ballad beginning " King 
Stephen was a worthy peer." — 221. trash. See note on I, ii, 81. — 
222. frippery = old-clothes shop? — Fr. f riper, to crumple; wear out; 
devour ; fripe, a rag, scrap ; friperie, trifles, rags, ' old-cloV — 224. by this 
hand! Ill, ii, 47. — 228. alone = you and me without Trinculo. Begin- 
ning with Theobald, many editors read, "Let's along"; some, with Col- 
lier, "Left alone"; Hanmer, 'Let it alone.' — 232. line. See on this 
word in line 193. — 233. jerkin = doublet ? jacket? — Ttu.jurk, a frock. — 
234. hair. ' Crossing the line ' [i.e. equator] ? Sailors were liable to lose 
their hair from fever, or by tricks played on them. Much learning has 
been expended in explaining the puns of the drunken butler and the pro- 
fessional jester. Clothes-line, equinoctial line, plumb-line, hangman's 
line, and even hair line, as if the rope were made of hair (which a cockney 
would call 'air, and Mr. Brae says clothes were hung out to be aired — air 
line therefore!) — each of these offers itself, or is pressed into service, " as 
who should say, ' And you will not have me, choose ! ' " — 235. by line and 
level; i.e. scientifically? — 239. pass of pate = thrust or sally of wit? 
Pass is a fencing term ; pate, slang for ' head.' See our Hamlet, II, ii, 557. 
— 241. lime = bird-lime. See on limed, in our Hamlet, III, iii, 68.— 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 113 

Caliban. I will have none on't ; we shall lose our time, 
And all be turn'd to barnacles, or to apes 
With foreheads villanous low. 

Stephano. Monster, lay to your fingers ; help to bear this 
away where my hogshead of wine is, or I'll turn you out of 
my kingdom : go to, carry this. 

Trinculo. And this. 

Stephano. Ay, and this. 250 

A noise of hunters heard. Enters divers Spirits, in shape of 
dogs and hounds, and hunt them about, Prospero and Ariel 
setting them on. 

Prospero. Hey, Mountain, hey! 

Ariel. Silver ! there it goes, Silver ! 

Prospero. Fury, Fury ! there, Tyrant, there ! hark, hark ! — 
[Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo are driven out. 
Go charge my goblins that they grind their joints. 
With dry convulsions, shorten up their sinews 
With aged cramps, and more pinch-spotted make them 
Than pard or cat o' mountain. 

Ariel. Hark, they roar ! 



244. barnacles = shell-fish growing on timber in water ? geese fabled to 
have been evolved from shell-fish growing on trees and falling into the 
water? — Max Miiller {Science of Lang., 2d series, Am. ed., p. 552 et seq.) 
thinks the word to be derived like ' Barney ' from Hibernia, Ireland ! 
Rolfe quotes from Marston's Malcontent, III, i, 

" Be like your Scotch barnacle, now a block, 
Instantly a worm, and presently a great goose." 

In Butler's Hudibras, we read 

" As barnacles turn Soland geese 
In th' islands of the Orcades." 

— Barnacles or geese? that's the question! — 245. foreheads, etc. Is it 
clear that Shakes, liked high foreheads? Two Gent, of Ven., IV, iv, 186; 
Ant. and Cleop., Ill, iii, 36, 37; Chaucer's ProL, 154, 155; Faerie Q., II, 
iii, 34. — villanous. In Shakes, adjectives are freely used as adverbs. 

Abbott, 1. — 248. go to = hush up ? come ? go to ? — Our Mer. of Ven., I, 

iii, 105. — 254. grind their joints with dry, etc. " The mucilage some- 
times gets dried out of the joints . . . so as to cause a creaking or grating 
sound. . . . Of course the effect is very painful." Hudson.— 255. aged 
= huge [Hudson] ? such as afflict the old [Wright, Deighton, etc.] ? — I, ii, 
367. — 256. pard = panther ? Leopard (leo-pard) is lion pard. See our 
As You Like It, II, vii, 150. — cat o' mountain = catamouDt? wild 



114 THE TEMPEST. [ACT IV. SCENE I. 

Prospero. Let them be hunted soundly. At this hour 
Lies at my mercy all mine enemies ; 

Shortly shall all my labors end, and thou 260 

Shalt have the air at freedom. For a little 
Follow, and do me service. [Exeunt. 



cat? ounce? puma? — Mid. N. Dr., II, ii, 30. — 259. lies. See on cai^es, 
I, i, 16. 

In this scene, note the Masque in rhyme, lines 60-138. Such pieces, 
with dancing, singing, splendid scenery, exquisite music, and with high- 
born gentlemen and ladies for actors, were very fashionable in the reigns 
of Elizabeth, James, and the first Charles. Some have supposed that this 
was intended for presentation at the marriage of the Earl of Essex and 
Lady Frances Howard in 1611. 

"Darwin claims for the bonnet-monkey 'the forehead which gives to 
man his noble and intellectual appearance ' ; and it is obvious that it was 
not wanting in Caliban, for when he discovers the true quality of the 
drunken fools he has mistaken for gods, his remonstrance is, ' we shall 
all be turned to apes with foreheads villanous low.' . . . Caliban is not 
a brutalized, but a natural brute mind. He is a being in whom the moral 
instincts of man have no part; but also in whom the degradation of 
savage humanity is equally wanting. He is a novel anthropoid of a high 
tyP e j — such as on the hypothesis of evolution must have existed inter- 
mediately between the ape and man, — in whom some spark of rational 
intelligence has been enkindled, under the tutorship of one who has al- 
ready mastered the secrets of nature. . . . Caliban seems indeed the 
half-human link between the brute and man." — Dr. Daniel Wilson's 
Caliban: the Missing Link, 1873. 



ACT V. SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 115 



ACT V. 

Scene L Before the Cell of Prospero. 

Enter Prospero in his magic robes, and Ariel. 

Prospero. Now does my project gather to a head; 
My charms crack not, my spirits obey, and Time 
Goes upright with his carriage. How's the day ? 

Ariel. On the sixth hour ; at which time, my lord, 
You said our work should cease. 

Prospero. I did say so, 

When first I rais'd the tempest. Say, my spirit, 
How fares the king and's followers ? 

Ariel. Confin'd together 

In the same fashion as you gave in charge, 
Just as you left them; all prisoners, sir, 
In the line-grove which weather-fends your cell : 10 

They cannot budge till your release. The king, 
His brother, and yours, abide all three distracted, 
And the remainder mourning over them, 
Brimful of sorrow and dismay ; but chiefly 



ACT V. Scene I. 1. my project, etc. " Prosperous departure from 
the island is the abandoning by Shakespeare of the theatre, the scene of 
his marvellous works : ' Graves at my command Have waked their 
sleepers, oped, and let them forth By my so potent art.' Henceforth 
Prospero is but a man ; no longer a great enchanter. He returns to the 
dukedom he had lost in Stratford-upon-Avon, and will pay no tribute 
henceforth to any Alonzo or Lucy of them all." Dowden. — 2. crack not 
= are without a flaw [Wright] ? break not (as magic bands) [Allen] ? — 3. 
carriage = chariot ? load (under which, Time, as an old man, bends) 
[Warburton] ? — In Hamlet, V, ii, 149, 'carriages' are sword-straps; in 
Acts, xxi, 15, luggage ; in Merry Wives of W., II, ii, 155, it is that which is 
carried (a bag of money). — 9. To make this line metrical, Abbott, 484, 
would divide ' all ' into two syllables (a-11) , and squeeze ' prisoners ' into 
' pris'ners ' ! Peed would transpose sir to follow them. — 10. line-grove. 
IV, i, 193. —weather-fends. Fend = to ward off. Shortened from obs. 
fendere, to strike. Skeat. — 11. budge. Fr. bouger, to stir; fr. Lat. 
bullicare, frequentative of bulbire, to boil; Ital. bulicare, to bubble up. 



116 THE TEMPEST. [ACT V. 

Him that you term'd, sir, the good old lord, Gonzalo : 
His tears run down his beard, like winter's drops 
From eaves of reeds. Your charm so strongly works 'em 
That if you now beheld them, your affections 
Would become tender. 

Prospero. Dost thou think so, spirit ? 

Ariel. Mine would, sir, were I human. 

Prospero. And mine shall. 

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling 21 

Of their afflictions, and shall not myself, 
One of their kind, that relish all as sharply 
Passion as they, be kindlier mov'd than thou art ? 
Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick, 
Yet with my nobler reason 'gainst my fury 
Do I take part. The rarer action is 
In virtue than in vengeance ; they being penitent, 
The sole drift of my purpose doth extend 
Not a frown further. Go release them, Ariel ; 30 

My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore, 
And they shall be themselves. 

Ariel. I'll fetch them, sir. [Exit. 

Prospero. Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and 
groves, 
And ye that on the sands with printless foot 
Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him 35 

When he comes back ; you demi-puppets that 
By moonshine do the green sour ringlets make, 

Brachet. — 15. him = he [Furness] ? — Him is often put for ' he ' by 
'attraction.' Abbott, 208. Here, according to Abbott, the relative to 
which 'him' is attracted, is that. — May we supply, mentally, 'I refer 
especially to,' before him? — 23. relish all as sharply, Passion as 
they = relish all passion as sharply as they do? or relish passion all (i.e. 
full) as sharply as they do [Holt, Walker, Furness] ? feel as keenly the 
emotions of joy and express sorrow as they do [Wright, who retains the 
comma of folios 1, 2, after ' sharply,' and makes ' passion ' a verb] ? Pas- 
sion = feel the force of passion [Theobald] ? express emotion [Schmidt] ? 
— 24-30. This very significant Christian spirit breathes through all the 
plays of Shakespeare's latest period. — 33-50. Ye elves, etc. Here are 
traces of Shakespeare's acquaintance both with the original of Medea's 
incantation in Ovid's Metamorphoses (vii, 197-219) and with Golding's 
translation of the same in 1567. " Ovid," says Maginn (Fraser's Maga- 
zine, October, 1839), "has contributed to the invocation of Prospero at 
least as much as Golding."— Evidently the story of Medea had deeply 
impressed Shakespeare's imagination. 2 Henry IV, V, ii, 59; Mer. of 
Ven., V, i, 13. — 34. printless foot. Comus, 897. —35. Neptune. I, ii, 
433.-36. demi-puppets. Why demif — 2,1. green sour ringlets = 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 117 

Whereof the ewe not bites ; and you whose pastime 

Is to make midnight mushrooms, that rejoice 

To hear the solemn curfew ; by whose aid — 40 

Weak masters though ye be — I have bedimm'd 

The noontide sun, call'd forth the mutinous winds, 

And 'twixt the green sea and the azur'd vault 

Set roaring war : to the dread rattling thunder 

Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak 

With his own bolt ; the strong-bas'd promontory 

Have I made shake, and by the spurs pluck'd up 

The pine and cedar ; graves at my command 

Have wak'd their sleepers, op'd, and let 'em forth 

By my so potent art. But this rough magic 50 

I here abjure ; and, when I have requir'd 

Some heavenly music — which even now I do, — 

To work mine end upon their senses that 

This airy charm is for, I'll break my staff, 

Bury it certain fathoms in the earth, 

And deeper than did ever plummet sound 

I'll drown my book. [Solemn music. 

Here enter Ariel before: then Alonso, with a frantic gesture, 
attended by Gonzalo ; Sebastian and Antonio in like 
manner, attended by Adrian and Francisco : they all 
enter the circle which Prospero had made, and there stand 
charmed; which Prospero observing, speaks: 

A solemn air, and the best comforter 

To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains, 

Now useless, boil'd within thy skull ! There stand, 60 

For you are spell-stopp'd. — 

Holy Gonzalo, honorable man, 

'fairy rings'? Grey {Crit., Hist., and Explan. Notes, 1754) says that 
these little rings ' are higher, sourer, and of a deeper green than the grass 
which grows around them.' They are ' the circles formed in grassy lawns 
by certain fungi (as Marasmius Oreades), formerly supposed to be caused 
by fairies in their midnight dances.' Webster's Int. Diet. — 38. not 
bites. 113; II, i, 118.— 39, 40. rejoice to hear the solemn curfew. 
Our Comus, 432-435. — 41. weak masters = inferior masters of these 
supernatural powers [Steevens] ? powerful auxiliaries, but weak if left to 
yourselves [Blackstone] ? weak proficients, weak adepts [Furness]? — In 
'masters' Jephson discovers slightly contemptuous irony; Rolfe, affec- 
tionate irony. — 43. azur'd. Adjective turned to verb? Abbott, 294. — 
45, 46. Jove's, etc. Oak and thunderbolt, sacred to Jove? As You Like 
It, III, ii, 221.— 53. that = which? whom? 

60. boil'd. There is in this word an energy amounting to fierceness. 



118 THE TEMPEST. [ACT V. 

Mine eyes, even sociable to the show of thine, 

Fall fellowly drops. — The charm dissolves apace ; 

And as the morning steals upon the night, 

Melting the darkness, so their rising senses 

Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle 

Their clearer reason. — good Gonzalo, 

My true preserver, and a royal sir 

To him thou follow' st ! I will pay thy graces 70 

Home both in word and deed. — Most cruelly 

Didst thou, Alonso, use me and my daughter; 

Thy brother was a furtherer in the act. — 

Thou art pinch' d for't now, Sebastian. — Flesh and blood, 

You, brother mine, that entertain' d ambition, 

Expell'd remorse and nature ; who, with Sebastian, — 

Whose inward pinches therefore are most strong, — 

Would here have kill'd your king ; I do forgive thee, 

Unnatural though thou art. — Their understanding 

Begins to swell, and the approaching tide 80 

Will shortly fill the reasonable shore 

That now lies foul and muddy. Not one of them 

That yet looks on me, or would know me. — Ariel, 

Fetch me the hat and rapier in my cell ; 

I will disease me, and myself present 

As I was sometime Milan. Quickly, spirit ; 

Thou shalt ere long be free. 

See Wint. Tale, III, iii, 63 ; ' seething brains ' in Mid. N. Dr., V, i, 4.-63. 
sociable to the show = sympathizing with what appears [Rolfe] ? in 
close companionship and sympathy with the appearance [Wright]? — 64. 
fall. II, i, 292; As Y. L. I., Ill, v, 5.— fellowly. Ill, i, 84; our Jul. 
Cses., Ill, i, 62.— The -ly, in fellowly, is A. S. lie, like. — Abbott, 447. 

— 67. ignorant = of ignorance [Wright]? causing ignorance [Furness]? 

— Fumes personified? — mantle. IV, i, 182. — 71. home = completely? 

— Shakes, uses 'home' = 'to the quick,' or 'sensibly,' 'effectively,' 
'earnestly.' — 75. You. Ill, iii, 56. — 76. remorse = pity? tender affec- 
tion? compunction of conscience? — Lat. re, again; mordere, to bite; re- 
?norsus, biting back, biting again and again. Our Macb., I, v, 42 ; Mer. of 
Ven., IV, i, 20. — 77. thee. Thou, from a superior to an inferior, is often 
confidential, good-humored. "But a master, finding fault, often resorts 
to the unfamiliar ' you,' much as Caesar cut his soldiers to the heart by 
giving them the respectful title of ' Quirites.' " — 81. reasonable = of 
reason? rational, appropriate, conformable to reason? — "The shore of 
reason which has just been, by another figure, compared to clear water 
covered with a scum of ignorant fumes." Wright. — See on ignorant, line 
67.-85. disease. In Wint. T, IV, iii, 616-618, we have, "make an 
exchange; therefore disease thee instantly . . . change garments," etc. — 
In Meas.for M., II, iv, we read 'thy_ case, thy habit.' — 86. sometime. 
So ' our sometime sister,' Hamlet, I, ii, 8; Ephes., ii, 13. 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 119 

Ariel sings, and helps to attire him. 

Where the bee sucks, there suck I: 

In a cowslip's bell I lie ; 

TJiere I couch when owls do cry. 90 

On the bat's back I dojly 

After summer merrily. 
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now 
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough. 

Prospero. Why, that's my dainty Ariel ! I shall miss 
thee; 
But yet thou shalt have freedom : — so, so, so. — 
To the king's ship, invisible as thou art : 
There shalt thou find the mariners asleep 
Under the hatches ; the master and the boatswain 
Being awake, enforce them to this place, 100 

And presently, I prithee. 

Ariel. I drink the air before me, and return 
Or ere your pulse twice beat. [Exit. 

Gonzalo. All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement 
Inhabits here ; some heavenly power guide us 
Out of this fearful country ! 

Prospero. Behold, sir king, 

The wronged Duke of Milan, Prospero ! 



88-91. We leave to the botanists and ornithologists their disputes over 
this pretty song. Those who are curious about them may read the quota- 
tions and references in Furness, and we wish them much joy of the owl 
and the bat. " What," says Furness, " has natural history to do with The 
Tempest, where all is unnatural history? as if a spirit, that could tread 
the ooze of the salt deep or work i' the veins of the earth when it is bak'd 
with frost, could not fly, if it chose, in perpetual sunshine, on the back of 
a bat, which was torpid as a stone with the cold of a dozen winters." — 
96. so, so, so. Eeferring to Ariel's assistance in attiring him [Furness] ? 
— 100. being awake. "Norn, absolute," says Abbott, 376; but — ? — 
101. presently. I, ii, 125; IV, i, 42.— 102. drink the air. "It would 
be difficult to parallel this little speech," say the Cowden-Clarkes (in their 
The Plays of Shakespeare, London ed.), "with one conveying an equal 
impression of swift motion. Shakespeare himself has matched it in his 
Puck's ' I'll put a girdle round about the earth in forty minutes,' and, ' I 
go, I go, look how I go ; swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow ' ; 
where the words seem to dart out with the speed and light leaps of Robin 
Goodfellow himself." — Drink the air is like ' devour the way,' 2 Henry IV, 
I, i, 47; viam vorabit, will swallow the way, Catullus, xxxv, 7. — or ere. 
Note on I, ii, 11.— 105. inhabits. This form in s, where we should expect 
the ' singular,' is very common in S. Abbott, 333, 336, thinks s was still 



120 THE TEMPEST. [ACT V. 

For more assurance that a living prince 

Does now speak to thee, I embrace thy body; 

And to thee and thy company I bid 110 

A hearty welcome. 

Alonso. Whether thou beest he or no, 

Or some enchanted trifle to abuse me, 
As late I have been, I not know : thy pulse 
Beats, as of flesh and blood ; and, since I saw thee, 
The affliction of my mind amends, with which, 
I fear, a madness held me. This must crave — 
And if this be at all — a most strange story. 
Thy dukedom I resign, and do entreat 
Thou pardon me my wrongs. — But how should Prospero 
Be living and be here ? 

Prospero. First, noble friend, 120 

Let me embrace thine age, whose honor cannot 
Be measur'd or confined. 

Oonzalo. Whether this be 

Or be not, I'll not swear. 

Prospero. You do yet taste 

Some subtleties o' the isle, that will not let you 
Believe things certain. — Welcome, my friends all ! — 
[Aside to Sebastian and Antonio'] But you, my brace of 

lords, were I so minded, 
I here could pluck his highness' frown upon you, 
And justify you traitors ; at this time 
I'll tell no tales. 



recognized as a relic of the E. Eng. plu. in s or es.— 112. enchanted 
trifle = bewitching phantom [Hudson] ? trifle produced by enchantment 
[Walker] ?— The old sense of trifle was a delusion, a trick. Skeat. — 
abuse = deceive. Hamlet, II, ii, 590, and often in S. — 113. not know. 
38, 304; II, i, 118. — saw. Abbott, 317. — 117. And if. So the folio. 
Icel. enda, if. See our Jul. Cses., I, ii, 257; Matt., xxiv, 48, 'But and if 
that evil servant,' etc. A b bott, 101-105. — 119. wrongs = sins ? Line 25. 
— 123. subtleties. A ' subtlety ' denoted a device in pastry and confec- 
tionery. Says Steevens, "When a dish was so contrived as to appear 
unlike what it really was, they called it a subtilty. Dragons, castles, 
trees, etc., made out of sugar had the like denomination. Froissart com- 
plains much of this practice, which often led him into mistakes at din- 
ner." "I am afraid Steevens is right." Furness. — 127. pluck. A. S. 
pluccian, to pull. The butcher's term (' pluck ') arose from pulling the 
vital organs from the slain animal. Skeat. — 128. "justify = exculpate ? 
prove just? prove? — In All's W. T. E. W., IV, iii, 50, 51, justified = 
proved. — 129. No! Hudson, Meiklejohn, and some others follow Allen 
(Phila. Shake. Soc.) and read Mow instead of ' No ' ; because, they say, 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 121 

Sebastian [Aside] The devil speaks in him. 

Prospero. no ! — 

For yon, most wicked sir, whom to call brother 130 

Would even infect my mouth, I do forgive 
Thy rankest fault, — all of them ; and require 
My dukedom of thee, which perforce I know 
Thou must restore. 

Alonso. If thou beest Prospero, 

Give us particulars of thy preservation ; 
How thou hast met us here, who three hours since 
Were wrack' d upon this shore, where I have lost — 
How sharp the point of this remembrance is ! — 
My dear son Ferdinand. 

Prospero. I am woe for't, sir. 

Alonso. Irreparable is the loss, and patience 140 

Says it is past her cure. 

Prospero. I rather think 

You have not sought her help, of whose soft grace 
For the like loss I have her sovereign aid, 
And rest myself content. 

Alonso. You the like loss ? 

Prospero. As great to me as late ; and supportable 
To make the dear loss have I means much weaker 
Than you may call to comfort you, for I 
Have lost my daughter. 

Prospero could not have heard Sebastian's remark. But magicians have 
good ears. Prospero's indignant No is as forcible as Now would be tame. 
— 132. rankest = of highest grade ? most malodorous ? — Fr. rang, range, 
rank; A. S. ratio, strong, proud, forward. The sense of 'strong-scented' 
is late, due to confusion with Lat. rancidus, rancid, or rather with O. Fr. 
ranee, 'musty, fusty, stale.' Skeat. — 136. "who. The 1st folio has 
whom, which, possibly, from the proximity of us, might be explained as a 
case of 'attraction.' — 139. woe = sorry [Malone, Hudson, Phillpotts, 
Rolfe, Meiklejohn]? — Abbott, 230, calls the sentence 'an ungrammatical 
remnant of an ancient usage,' for "Woe is [to] me." May it be that 
Prospero means "I am woe itself, an embodiment of woe"? See 'blas- 
phemy,' line 218; 'conduct,' 244; 'cramp,' 287. — 145. as late = and has 
as lately happened [Johnson, Hudson, Meiklejohn, Deighton] ? as it is 
recent [Wright, Rolfe]? — The folio has a comma after 'me.' Which 
interpretation does the comma favor ? — supportable. How accented ? 
Abbott divides thus : 

As great | to me I as late ; | and support | able. 

This seems to make a bull of the last syllable. Perhaps it would be better 
to accent the 1st and 3d syl. of ' supportable.' — 146. dear. II, i, 132.— 
148. daughter. Walker and Dyce tell us daughter is a trisyllable ! They 
do not tell us how. We may therefore guess. Try daugh — a — ter! or 



122 THE TEMPEST. [act v. 

Alonso. A daughter ? 

heavens, that they were living both in Naples, 

The king and queen there ! that they were, I wish 150 

Myself were mudded in that oozy bed 

Where my son lies. When did you lose your daughter ? 

Prospero. In this last tempest. I perceive, these lords 
At this encounter do so much admire 
That they devour their reason, and scarce think 
Their eyes do offices of truth, their words 
Are natural breath : but, howsoe'er you have 
Been justled from your senses, know for certain 
That I am Prospero, and that very duke 
Which was thrust forth of Milan ; who most strangely 160 
Upon this shore, where you were wrack' d, was landed, 
To be the lord on't. No more yet of this ; 
For 'tis a chronicle of day by day, 
Not a relation for a breakfast, nor 
Befitting this first meeting. Welcome, sir; 
This cell's my court : here have I few attendants, 
And subjects none abroad; pray you, look in. 
My dukedom since you have given me again, 

1 will requite you with as good a thing ; 

At least bring forth a wonder, to content ye 170 

As much as me my dukedom. 

Here Prospero discovers Ferdinand and Miranda playing 

at chess. 

Miranda. Sweet lord, you play me false. 

daugh — augh — ter ! or, possibly, daugh — ter — er / Any one of these would 
be dreadful, if it were not so irresistibly funny. Fill out the metre by a 
long pause, such as tbe sense naturally requires. See our Hamlet, I, i, 
129, 132, 135. — 150. that = provided that? — 154. admire. Lat. ad, at; 
mirari, to wonder. — See admired, Par. Lost, ii, 677. — 155. devour. Ill, 
iii, 84. — 156. their words = even their own words? But Capell and 
Hudson change their to ' these.' Wisely? — 160. which . . . of. Abbott, 
266, 166. — 170. content ye = please you? Fr. contenter, to satisfy, 
gratify. As for ye, it is often used similarly in Shakes, and by Milton, 
Bayard Taylor, etc. Abbott, 236. 

172. discovers = discloses ? finds? — Fr. decouvrir, to uncover, bring 
to view. The etymology is curious. Lat. dis, apart ; O. Fr. des, Fr. de ; 
Lat. co- or con-, together, with, completely; ob, towards, against, over; 
root per or par, to complete, make (or cover?) ; Lat. operire, to conceal; 
cooperire, to cover over, or cover entirely; whence couvrir, to cover; and 
de'couvrir. — chess. In the Elizabethan age, Naples is said to have been 
the headquarters of this game. — play me. Abbott, 220. 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 123 

Ferdinand. No, my dear'st love, 

I would not for the world. 

Miranda. Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle, 
And I would call it fair play. 

Alonso. If this prove 

A vision of the island, one dear son 
Shall I twice lose. 

Sebastian. A most high miracle ! 

Ferdinand. Though the seas threaten, they are merciful ; 
I have curs'd them without cause. [Kneels. 

Alonso. Now all the blessings 

Of a glad father compass thee about ! 180 

Arise, and say how thou cam'st here. 

Miranda. 0, wonder ! 

How many goodly creatures are there here ! 
How beauteous mankind is ! brave new world 
That has such people in't ! 

Prospero. ? Tis new to thee. 

Alonso. What is this maid with whom thou wast at play ? 
Your eld'st acquaintance cannot be three hours ; 
Is she the goddess that hath sever'd us, 
And brought us thus together ? 

Ferdinand. Sir, she is mortal, 

But by immortal Providence she's mine ; 
I chose her when I could not ask my father 190 

For his advice, nor thought I had one. She 
Is daughter to this famous Duke of Milan 
Of whom so often I have heard renown, 
But never saw before ; of whom I have 
Eeceiv'd a second life, and second father 
This lady makes him to me. 

175. score = (not the number twenty but) account (subject or bet) [War- 
burton] ? twenty [Johnson] ? Score of kingdoms = game in which the score 
is reckoned by kingdoms [Wright] ? stake? wager? — wrangle = dispute 
noisily? wrong me [Hudson]? — A. S. wringan, to press; past, wrang, 
pressed. M. Eng. wranglen. . . . The frequentative of wring, to press, 
to strain. . . . The orig. sense was to keep on pressing, to urge ; hence 
to argue vehemently. Skeat. — Does she mean, "If kingdoms were at 
stake, and you disputed my charge of cheating, (I am in such a state of 
mind that) I should call it fair play " ? — 176. vision of the island. In 
Act III, sc. iii, he has seen one or two visions vanish into nothingness. — 
182, 183. goodly . . . beauteous, etc. Goodly, as in Hamlet, I, ii, 186, 
is good-looking? So Milton's 'Adam, the goodliest man,' Par. Lost, 
iv, 323. It must be remembered that they were dressed in fine apparel, 
I, ii, 218, 219. — 187. Is she the goddess. AUneid, i, 328, 329; Comus, 



124 THE TEMPEST. [ACT V. 

Alonso. I am hers. 

But, 0, how oddly will it sound that I 
Must ask my child forgiveness ! 

Prospero. There, sir, stop; 

Let us not burthen our remembrances with 
A heaviness that's gone. 

Gonzalo. I have inly wept, 200 

Or should have spoke ere this. — Look down, you gods, 
And on this couple drop a blessed crown ! 
For it is you that have chalk'd forth the way 
Which brought us hither. 

Alonso. I say Amen, Gonzalo ! 

Gonzalo. Was Milan thrust from Milan, that his issue 205 
Should become kings of .Naples ? 0, rejoice 
Beyond a common joy ! and set it down 
With gold on lasting pillars : In one voyage 
Did Claribel her husband find at Tunis ; 
And Ferdinand her brother found a wife, 210 

Where he himself was lost ; Prospero his dukedom, 
In a poor isle ; and all of us ourselves, 
When no man was his own. 

Alonso. [to Ferdinand and Miranda"] G-ive me your hands ; 
Let grief and sorrow still embrace his heart 
That doth not wish you joy ! 

Gonzalo. Be it so ! Amen ! — 

Enter Ariel, with the Master and Boatswain amazedly 
following. 

O, look, sir ! look, sir ! here is more of us ! 
I prophesied, if a gallows were on land, 

266, 267. — 196. hers = her second father?— 199. remembrances. 
Allen, Furness, and some others would not sound the s, and Furness 
would elide it and put an apostrophe to indicate the elision. Would not 
such apostrophe, however, convey to the average reader an erroneous 
notion; viz., that the word is in the possessive case? — "It is sufficient 
for a word to terminate in the sound of s to be regarded by the ear as a 
plural." Furness (referring to Walker, Vers. 246; Abbott, 471). See on 
'princess,' I, ii, 173. — 200. heaviness. Mer.of V., V, i, 130; Jul. Cses., 
II, i, 275.— 203. chalk'd forth the way. So in Henry VIII, I, i, 60, 
'chalks successors their way.' — 213. his own = in his senses [Steevens, 
Hudson] ? master of himself [Rolfe, Deighton] ? — Is the phrase ' self- 
possessed' quite equivalent? — Considering lines 205-213, Phillpotts 
thinks the play might well have been called, "Lost but Found." — 214. 
still = up to this time? always? continually? — !, ii, 229; III, iii, 64. 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 125 

This fellow could not drown. — Now, blasphemy, 
That swear'st grace o'erboard, not an oath on shore ? 
Hast thou no mouth by land ? What is the news ? 220 

Boatswain. The best news is, that we have safely found 
Our king and company ; the next, our ship — 
Which, but three glasses since, we gave out split — 



216. here is. I, i, 16; ii, 477. — 221. safely found = found safe. 
Rolfe remarks, " Shakespeare often uses adverbs as 'predicate adjectives,' 
a fact not mentioned by Abbott." Rolfe cites 'look wearily,' III, i, 32; 
' looks successfully ' in As You L. I., I, ii, 137, etc. —223. three glasses, 
etc. This sentence and that uttered by Helena in All's Well (II, i, 165, 
166) are relied upon as ' a sure proof that Shakespeare never was at sea.' 
The elaborate argument to this effect by Br. Nicholson (New Shakespeare 
Soc. Trans., 1880-2, P't i, p. 53) is quoted with approbation by Furness 
(Var. Ed., The Tempest, pp. 255, 256). Briefly, he urges that the sea- 
man's ' glass ' is always a half-hour glass ; that Prospero or Ariel (I, ii, 
239-241), just after the storm had ceased, said it was ' at least two glasses,' 
meaning hours, past midday ; that Alonzo had specified less than three 
hours (V, i, 186) as the time that had elapsed since Ferdinand made the 
acquaintance of Miranda ; that the boatswain's ' three glasses' in this line 
must therefore cover three hours ; that the ' four and twenty times the 
pilot's glass,' spoken of by Helena in All's Well, cannot mark half-hours ; 
and therefore, to conclude, we must abandon the long-cherished belief in 
Shakespeare's accuracy in the technology of navigation. In reply, it 
may be suggested that a landman would naturally understand the word 
glass as meaning ' the sandy hour-glass ' of Mer. of Ven., I, i, 25 ; that in 
All's Well, Helena is not a sailor, nor bound to be technically accurate, 
and she very likely speaks of twenty-four hours, 1 though she uses the 
words, ' four and twenty times the pilot's glass ' ; that the expression ' at 
least two glasses ' (Tempest, I, ii, 240) is neither spoken by nor to a sailor, 
but by Prospero to Ariel, both accustomed to hour-glasses ; that the re- 
mark, "it cannot be three hours" proves nothing as to the mode of 
reckoning. It was past two when the lovers first met. The boatswain is 
not a good witness as to the lapse of time ; (a) having probably taken too 
many glasses of a different sort (I, i, 50) ; (b) having been sound asleep 
(I, ii, 32; V, i, 230, 231) ; and (c) being disposed to heighten the miracle 
by shortening the time (V, i, 223). Wherefore, may we not still have faith 
in Shakespeare's technical knowledge of seamanship? — gave out = gave 

1 The king asks her how soon her mysterious medicine can cure his malady. She 
answers virtually in a climax, first, less than two days ; secondly, about a day and a 
half; thirdly, less than one day ; thus : 

" Ere twice the horses of the sun shall bring 
Their fiery torcher his diurnal ring ; [i.e. two full days.] 

Ere twice in murk and occidental damp 

Moist Hesperus hath quenched his sleepy lamp ; [say 36 hours ?] 

Or four and twenty times the pilot's glass 
Hath told the thievish minutes how they pass." [twenty-four hours.] 

If this interpretation of the passage in All's Well is not correct, are we not forced 
to the conclusion that Helena simply repeats herself in utter tautology, 'ere two days, 
ere two days, ere two days' ? Mr. P. A. Daniel in his Time Analysis, tells us " the 
pilot's glas"s in All's Well is a two-hour glass" ! Furness concurs in this. Was then 
the king so stupid as to require such — iteration ? 



126 THE TEMPEST. [ACT V. 

Is tight, and yare, and bravely rigg'd as when 
We first put out to sea. 

Ariel. [Aside to Prospero] Sir, all this service 
Have I done since I went. 

Prospero. [Aside to Ariel'] My tricksy spirit ! 

Alonso. These are not natural events ; they strengthen 
From strange to stranger. — Say, how came you hither ? 

Boatswain. If I did think, sir, I were well awake, 
I'd strive to tell you. We were dead of sleep, 230 

And — how we know not — all clapp'd under hatches; 
Where, but even now, with strange and several noises 
Of roaring, shrieking, howling, jingling chains, 
And moe diversity of sounds, all horrible, 
We were awak'd ; straightway, at liberty ; 
Where we, in all her trim, freshly beheld 
Our royal, good, and gallant ship ; our master 
Capering to eye her. On a trice, so please you, 
Even in a dream, were we divided from them 
And were brought moping hither. 

Ariel. [Aside to Prospero'] Was't well done ? 240 

Prospero. [Aside to Ariel] Bravely, my diligence. Thou 
shalt be free. 

Alonso. This is as strange a maze as e'er men trod ; 
And there is in this business more than nature 
Was ever conduct of : some oracle 
Must rectify our knowledge. 

Prospero. Sir, my liege, 

Do not infest your mind with beating on 
The strangeness of this business. At pick'd leisure, 
Which shall be shortly, single I'll resolve you, 
Which to you shall seem probable, of every 



up as [Rolfe] ? believed and declared to be [Deigbton] ? — 224. yare. I, i, 
3.-226. tricksy. Du. treckken, to draw; trek, a trick. Our Mer. of 
Ven., Ill, v, 50; Hamlet, TV, vii, 186. — 230. of sleep. Abbott, 168.— 
232. several. Ill, i, 42. — 240. moping. IV, i, 47; our Hamlet, III, iv, 
81. — 244. conduct = conductor? So said to be in Richard II, TV, i, 157 ; 
Rom. and Jul., V, iii, 116. See ' blasphemy,' line 218; 'diligence,' 241, 
etc. — 246. infest. Lat. in, against; obs. federe or fendere, to strike; 
infestare, to attack. — beating on. I, ii, 176; Hamlet, III, i, 174.— 
248. single = by myself [Wright] ? single, one by one [Delius] ? in private 
[Rolfe, Deighton, Meiklejohn] ? to you (Alonso) alone [Warburton, Capell, 
Furness] — resolve. Our Jul. Cses., Ill, i, 132. Do we say 'solve 
doubts'? — 249. which. What? solution? explanation [Allen]? meth- 
od [Johnson]? — probable = deserving approbation [Johnson]? proved 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 127 

These happen'd accidents ; till when, be cheerful, 250 

And think of each thing well. — [Aside to Ariel] Come hither, 

spirit : 
Set Caliban and his companions free ; 

Untie the spell. — [Exit Ariel] How fares my gracious sir ? 
There are yet missing of your company 
Some few odd lads that you remember not. 

Enter Ariel, driving in Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo, 
in their stolen apparel. 

Stephano. Every man shift for all the rest, and let no man 
take care for himself, for all is but fortune. — Coragio, bully- 
monster, coragio ! 

Trinculo. If these be true spies which I wear in my head, 
here's a goodly sight. 260 

Caliban. Setebos, these be brave spirits indeed ! 
How fine my master is ! I am afraid 
He will chastise me. 

Sebastian . Ha, ha ! 

What things are these, my lord Antonio ? 
Will money buy 'em ? 

Antonio. Very like ; one of them 

Is a plain fish, and no doubt marketable. 

Prospero. Mark but the badges of these men, my lords, 
Then say if they be true. — This misshapen knave, 
His mother was a witch ; and one so strong 
That could control the moon, make flows and ebbs, 270 

And deal in her command without her power. 

[Allen]? — "It seems to me quite sufficient that Prospero's resolution 
[explanation?] should appear 'probable' to Alonso, especially if we take 
' seem ' in its strongest sense." Furness. Abbott, 271. — every. Abbott, 
12.— 250. happen'd. Abbott, 295.-253. untie. See III, iii, 89; I, ii, 
485. — 255. odd = unnoticed ? queer? — Icel. oddi, a triangle; a point of 
land; Dan. ocl, a point. 'Odds and ends ' = points and ends. The sense 
of ' strange ' or ' queer ' seems to be a mere development from that of un- 
even. Skeat. 

259. Coragio [Ital.] = courage. Lat. cor, heart; Fr. courage. — 
261. Setebos. I, ii, 371.— 267. badges = stolen apparel ? — " Household 
servants usually wore on their arms, as a part of their livery, silver 
' badges,' whereon the shield of their masters was engraved." Furness. — 
268. if they = if the badges [Furness]? if the men [Johnson] ? — true = 
genuine [Furness] ? honest [Johnson] ? — 271. without = beyond [Staun- 
ton, Wright, Hudson, Furness, Meiklejohn] ? — without her power, 
etc. = exercise her rule without being empowered by her to do so, usurp- 
ing her authority [Malone, Dyce, Rolfe, Phillpotts, Deighton] ? exercise, 



128 THE TEMPEST. [ACT V. 

These three have robb'd me ; and this demi-devil — 
For he's a bastard one — had plotted with them 
To take my life. Two of these fellows yon 
Mnst know and own ; this thing of darkness I 
Acknowledge mine. 

Caliban. I shall be pinch'd to death. 

Alonso. Is not this Stephano, my drunken butler ? 

Sebastian. He is drunk now ; where had he wine ? 

Alonso. And Trinculo is reeling-ripe ; where should they 
Find this grand liquor that hath gilded 'em ? 280 

How cam'st thou in this pickle ? 

Trinculo. I have been in such a pickle, since I saw you 
last, that, I fear me, will never out of my bones ; I shall not 
fear fly-blowing. 

Sebastian. Why, how now, Stephano ! 

Stephano. 0, touch me not ; I am not Stephano, but a 
cramp. 

Prospero. You'd be king o' the isle, sirrah ? 

Stephano. I should have been a sore one, then. 

Alonso. This is a strange thing as e'er I look'd on. 290 

[Pointing to Caliban. 

Prospero. He is as disproportion' d in his manners 
As in his shape. — Go, sirrah, to my cell ; 
Take with you your companions ; as you look 
To have my pardon, trim it handsomely. 

Caliban. Ay, that I will ; and I'll be wise hereafter, 
And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass 
Was I, to take this drunkard for a god, 
And worship this dull fool ! 

locally and exceptionally, the office of the moon, but without her power as 
a universal cause of the tidal action [Knight] ? beyond her power [Staun- 
ton, Furness] ? outdo the moon in exercising the moon's own command 
[Hudson]? In 2 Corinth., x, 13, 'without our measure ' = beyond our 
measure. — 279. reeling ripe = ripe for reeling [Wright, Kolfe] ? So 
drunk that he reels [Deighton]? — In Love's L. L., V, ii, 275, and in 
Sidney's Arcadia (1598), p. 61, we have 'weeping ripe' ; in Com. of Er., 
I, i, 77, ' sinking ripe ' ; Beaum. and Fletch., ' crying ripe,' and ' drunk and 
tumbling ripe.' — 280. gilded. Anciently used for intoxicated, Theo- 
bald, Warburton, Steevens, Wright, etc., see an allusion to the Elixor of 
the alchemists {aurum potabile, Milton's 'potable gold.' Par. Lost, iii, 
608). In 'gilded,' Phillpotts sees a double play: (1) on their clothes; 
(2) on sack (sherry) as the true elixir. — 283. fear me = permit myself 
to fear? fear for myself? Abbott, 296.-289. sore. Some find a quib- 
ble here, and similarly in 2 Henry VI, IV, vii, 9.— 290. Ellipsis? Abbott, 
276.-296. grace. Everyone is forgiven, and even Caliban will begin a 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 129 

Prospero. Go to ; away ! 

Alonso. Hence, and bestow your luggage where you found 
it. 

Sebastian. Or stole it, rather. 300 

[Exeunt Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo. 

Prospero. Sir, I invite your highness and your train 
To my poor cell, where you shall take your rest 
For this one night ; which, part of it, I'll waste 
With such discourse as, I not doubt, shall make it 
Go quick away, — the story of my life, 
And the particular accidents gone by 
Since I came to this isle : and in the morn 
I'll bring you to your ship, and so to Naples, 
Where I have hope to see the nuptial 

Of these our dear-belov'd solemnized ; 310 

And thence retire me to my Milan, where 
Every third thought shall be my grave. 

Alonso. I long 

To hear the story of your life, which must 
Take the ear strangely. 

Prospero. I'll deliver all ; 

And promise you calm seas, auspicious gales, 
And sail so expeditious that shall catch 
Your royal fleet far off. — [Aside to Ariel] My Ariel, chick, 
That is thy charge ; then to the elements 
Be free, and fare thou well ! — Please you, draw near. 

[Exeunt. 

better life! — 299. bestow. 2 Kings, v, 24.— 304, II, i, 118; Abbott, 305. 
— 309. nuptial. S. prefers the 'singular' form of this word, but uses 
the plural also. — 310. solemnized. Shakes, here, and Milton in Par. 
Lost, vii, 448, accent the 2d syl. — 311. retire me. Abbott, 296.— 
314. deliver. II, i, 45. — 317. fleet far off. I, ii, 234. — 319. please 
you = may it please you ? if it please you ? 

" Stephano and Trinculo sum up the old distrust of the lower classes. 
They are not a mob, to be sure ; on the magic island there was no chance 
for a mob to breed ; in Stephano and Trinculo, however, all the folly and 
the impotence of a mob are incarnate. With Caliban the case is different ; 
in him there is a perception of something not hinted at before. 

" The single unique figure of Caliban, in short, typifies the whole history 
of such world-wide social evolution, such permanent race-conflict, as was 
only beginning in Shakespeare's day, and is not ended in our own. Civil- 
ization, exploring and advancing, comes face to face with barbarism and 
savagery. Savage and barbarian alike absorb, not the blessings of civil- 
ization, but its vices, amid which their own simple virtues are lost. Ruin 
follows. . . . Humanity forbids the massacre of the lower races ; the 
equally noble instinct of race-supremacy forbids any but a suicidally 



130 THE TEMPEST. [ACT V. 



EPILOGUE. 

SPOKEN BY PROSPERO. 

Now my charms are all o'erthrown, 
And what strength I have's mine own. 
Which is most faint ; now, 'tis true, 
I must be here confin'd by you, 
Or sent to Naples. Let me not, 
Since I have my dukedom got, 
And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell 
In this bare island by your spell ; 
But release me from my bands 



philanthropic man of European blood to contemplate without almost 
equal horror the thought of miscegenation. Where Caliban would possess 
Miranda, we torment Caliban, but still we feel bound to preserve him, — 
which [sic] is not good for the morals or the temper of Caliban. That 
savage figure, then, shows a vision so prophetic that at least one modern 
scholar has chosen to study in Caliban the psychology of Darwin's missing 
link. Marvellously prophetic suggestiveness, however, is not exactly a 
condition of theatrical effect." — Wendell's William Shakespeare, 1894. 

Epilogue. Prologues and epilogues, it is said, were often written in 
the Elizabethan age by other persons than the authors of the plays. 
Richard Grant White and some others are quite sure that such was the 
case with this. For proof they dwell upon what they term its ' feeble 
trite ideas confined within stiff couplets,' ' the clumsy verse,' the requested 
'prayers,' etc. 

To all of which it might perhaps be properly urged that this epilogue, 
like much of the play itself, seems somewhat allegorical ; that we must 
therefore attempt to look beneath the surface ; that there are also uncouth 
verses and harsh-sounding couplets in the play; but if we can find an 
inner meaning in the epilogue, we may not only pardon the clumsiness, 
but even say like Milton, 

" Those rugged words to our like mouths grow sleek, 
That would have made Quintilian stare and gasp." 

Think of Prospero as Shakespeare himself, bidding farewell, not only 
to the glorious enchantments of the drama, but to its unspeakable degra- 
dations in the hands of other playwrights of that age ; a magician who 
feels that, in spite of himself, his art has not been wholly free from the 
contamination of those surroundings of which he exclaims, in his one 
hundred and eleventh sonnet, 

" And almost thence my nature is subdued 
To what it works in, like the dyer's hand ! " 

He quits his theatre. " Every third thought shall be my grave." His 
mood is distinctly religious. 

Line 3. most faint. Has a reaction come ? ennui ? — 6. dukedom. 
What? — 8. your spell = imaginary enchantment? fascination of old 
companionship ? — 9. release . . . bands, etc. Noise broke the spell of 



SCENE I.] THE TEMPEST. 131 

With the help of your good hands. 10 

Gentle breath of yours my sails 

Must fill, or else my project fails, 

Which was to please. Now I want 

Spirits to enforce, art to enchant ; 

And my ending is despair, 

Unless I be relieved by prayer, 

Which pierces so that it assaults 

Mercy itself, and frees all faults. 

As you from crimes would pardon'd be, 

Let your indulgence set me free. 20 



enchantments. See IV, i, 59. Allegory? — 10. hands = hand-clapping? 
co-operation? — 11. breath, of applause? of sympathy? of devotion? — 
13. to please. The mission of the drama to afford amusement, recrea- 
tion, joy? — 15. despair. Natural under the circumstances? common to 
necromancers in their last moments [Warhurton] ? — Furness's Var. ed. ; 
As You L. I., V, iv, 36, p. 269. — 16. prayer. Efficaciously offered for 
necromancers [Warhurton] ? prayer for the sovereign offered, according 
to custom, by players kneeling, at the close of the play [Jephson] ? James, 
V, 13, 16. — 17. assaults. "The kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, 
and the violent take it hy force." Matt., xi, 12; Luke, xviii, 1-7.— 
18. mercy itself = divine Mercy? God, the all-merciful? — frees all 
faults = absolves from all sins ? — Shakespeare often omits the preposi- 
tion. Sometimes the construction resembles the Greek accusative, which 
we translate by supplying in English the words as to, or in regard to. 
Abbott, 200. — " Forgiveness and freedom! these are the key-notes of this 
play." — Dowden. 



APPENDIX. 



HOW TO STUDY ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

[From the Boston Board of School Supervisors, 1877.] 

During the short time given to English Literature in the High 
Schools, few authors can be studied, and only selections from their 
works can be critically read. The main purpose, then, of this brief 
course of study should be to form and cultivate a taste for good litera- 
ture, to encourage careful and systematic reading, and to illustrate the 
principles which should guide in selecting authors and works to be 
read after leaving school. It should be the purpose of the teacher, 
while keeping the exercises in literature from becoming either mere 
tasks or pastimes, to make the lessons so interesting that they will be 
eagerly and vigorously studied, and will inspire a desire for a larger 
acquaintance with the best authors. This purpose, it is believed, can 
be accomplished, partly by leading the pupils to perceive the real intent 
of the author, his thoughts and feelings, the strength of his argument, 
the beauty and nobleness of his sentiment, and his clear, distinct, 
forcible, and happy expression ; partly by giving a vivid account of 
his life and times and their influence on each other, and by exciting 
an interest in the lives of his most eminent literary contemporaries. 
Thus, by association and comparison, the study of a single author 
may be an introduction and an incentive to the study of the literature 
of his period. 



At the outset, the whole of a poem, sketch, essay, or novel should 
be read by the pupils, either at home or at school. Having formed a 
general conception of the production, they should study carefully and 
read intelligently with their teacher those parts of it that are most 
interesting and instructive, and that represent the genius and style of 
the author. 

[From George H. Martin, Agent of the Mass. Board of Education.] 

What is wanted is a carefully graded course, which, beginning with 
the poetry of action, should lead the student step by step to the senti- 
mental and the reflective, all in their simplest forms, thence through 

133 



134 APPENDIX. 

the more elaborate narrative to the epic and the dramatic. The aim 
here is not to teach authors or works, but poetry ; and the works are 
selected for their value as illustrations, without reference to their 
authors. A parallel course in the study of prose should be pursued 
with the same end. Then, having learned what poetry is and what 
prose is, what they contain and how to find their contents, the pupils 
would be prepared to take up the study of individual authors. Having 
studied the authors, the final step would be to study the history of the 
literature, in which the relation of the authors to each other and to 
their times would appear. This would place the study of literature 
on a scientific basis, — first elementary ideas, then individual wholes, 
then relations and classifications. 

[From an address by L. E. Williston, A.M., Supervisor of Public 
Schools, Boston.^ 

How shall the teacher bring his pupils best to see and feel the 
thoughts of his author as he saw and felt them? 

First, Read the works carefully with them. Let the teacher read, 
and question as he reads. Let him often ask for paraphrases, and 
draw out in every way the thought of his class, making sure that all 
is clear. Let every impression have a corresponding expression, 
which shall re-act, and deepen the impression. 

Second, When a part of the work, an act, book, or canto, has been 
carefully read, assign a theme for a written essay. Let the class tell 
what the poet has attempted, how he has succeeded, what are the im- 
pressions made by the characters, scenes, and descriptions. 

Let the teacher himself write upon the themes assigned to his class, 
and thus give them a model of what he wishes them to do. 

Third, When the book or play has been carefully read and studied 
in this way in all its parts, let it be re-read in a larger and freer way 
than before. Let the pupils read, and the teacher watch to see if the 
thought is clearly apprehended by the pupil. Let the fine passages be 
read again and again by different members of the class, and their ren- 
dering be criticised by class and teacher. If the work read be a play, 
let the parts be taken by different members of the class. Let all the 
parts of the work now be studied in their relation to each other and to 
the whole. Essays now should be written upon subjects suggested by 
this more comprehensive study of the work, — a comparison of charac- 
ters, noteworthy scenes and their bearing upon the whole, the style of 
the author, and his skill in description, dramatic presentation, or 
invention. 

Fourth, With the careful reading and study of some book in school, 
I think it important that there should go the reading of some other 
book out of school. Flowers are not all to be picked and analyzed, 
but are to be enjoyed as they are seen by "him who runs." " Some 
books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, some few to be chewed 
and digested." Let the pupil have his exercise in merely " tasting" 
books, with enjoyment as the chief end. Let the teacher be his guide, 
and merely ask him to report what he finds. In other words, let him 
read, as we all read when we read for pleasure, — with his mind at 



APPENDIX. 135 

ease and open to every charm that genius can present. Let the teacher 
make the book the subject of conversation with his class, and draw 
their attention by his questions to the chief points which make it 
noteworthy. 

Do not make a disagreeable task of any such exercise. For, that 
our pupils may receive the highest and best influence from this study 
of English literature, it is essential that they love it, and retain only 
pleasant memories of the hours spent at school in the society of its 
best authors. 



[From J. M. Buchan, Inspector of High Schools, Ontario, Canada : 
quoted in BlaisdelVs '■'■Outline Studies in English Classics."] 

With all classes of pupils alike, the main thing to be aimed at by 
the teacher is to lead them clearly and fully to understand the mean- 
ing of the author they are reading, and to appreciate the beauty, the 
nobleness, the justness, or the sublimity of his thoughts and language. 
Parsing, the analysis of sentences, the derivation of words, the expla- 
nation of allusions, the scansion of verse, the pointing-out of figures 
of speech, the hundred and one minor matters on which the teacher 
may easily dissipate the attention of the pupil, should be strictly sub- 
ordinated to this great aim. ... It is essential that the mind of the 
reader should be put en rapport with that of the writer. There is 
something in the influence of a great soul upon another, which defies 
analysis. No analysis of a poem, however subtle, can produce the 
same effect upon the mind and heart as the reading of the poem 
itself. 



[From F. G. Fleay's "-Guide to Chaucer and Spenser.' 1 ''] 

No doubtful critical point should ever be set before the student as 
ascertained. One great advantage of these studies is the acquirement 
of a power of forming a judgment in cases of conflicting evidence. 
Give the student the evidence ; state your own opinion, if you like, 
but let him judge for himself. 

No extracts or incomplete works should be used. The capability of 
appreciating a whole work, as a whole, is one of the principal aims in 
aesthetic culture. 

It is better to read thoroughly one simple play or poem than to 
know details about all the dramatists and poets. The former trains 
the brain to judge of other plays or poems : the latter only loads the 
memory with details that can at any time be found, when required, in 
books of reference. 

For these studies to completely succeed, they must be as thorough 
as our classical studies used to be. No difficult point in syntax, pros- 
ody, accidence, or pronunciation ; no variation in manners or customs ; 
no historical or geographical allusion, — must be passed over without 
explanation. This training in exactness will not interfere with, but 
aid, the higher aims of literary training. 



136 APPENDIX. 

[From BlaisdelVs " Outlines for the Study of English Classics."] 

The following summary of points to be exacted . . . may prove 
useful : — 

I. — Points relative to substance. 

1. A general knowledge of the purport of the passages, and 

line of argument pursued. 

2. An exact paraphrase of parts of the whole, producing ex- 

actly and at length the author's meaning. 

3. The force and character of epithets. 

4. The meaning of similes, and expansions of metaphors. 

5. The exact meaning of individual words. 

II. — Points with regard to form. 

1. General grammar rules; if necessary, peculiarities of Eng- 

lish grammar. 

2. Derivations : (1) General laws and principles of deriva- 

tions, including a knowledge of affixes and suffixes. 
(2) Interesting historical derivation of particular words. 

III. — The knowledge of all allusions. 

IV. — A knowledge of such parallel passages and illustrations 
as the teacher has supplied. 



From all that has been quoted from the foregoing authorities, it 
may justly be inferred that somehow or other the pupil must be made 
to feel an interest in the author, to admire what is admirable in the 
composition, and really to enjoy its study. Secure this, and all else 
will follow as a matter of course : fail in this, and the time is wasted. 

The following suggestions, 1 or some of them, may be helpful in 
daily class- work : — 

1. At the beginning of the exercise, or as often as need be, require a 

statement of — 

(a) The main object of the author in the whole poem, ora- 
tion, play, or other production of which to-day's lesson is a 
part. 

(6) The object of the author in this particular canto, chapter, 
act, or other division of the main work. 

2. Read or recite from memory (or have the pupils do it) the finest 

part or parts of the last lesson. The elocutionary talent of the 
class should be utilized here, so that the author may appear at 
his best. 

3. Require at times (often enough to keep the whole fresh in mem- 

ory) a resume of the "argument," story, or succession of topics, 
up to the present lesson. 

1 See Suggestions to Teachers, in Sprague's edition of the First Two 
Books of Paradise Lost and Lycidas ; also in his Six Selections from 
Irving. 



APPENDIX. 137 

4. Have the student read aloud the sentence, paragraph, or lines, now 

(or previously) assigned. The appointed portion should have 
some unity. 

5. Occasionally let the student interpret exactly the meaning by sub- 

stituting his own words ; explain peculiarities. This paraphrase 
should often be in writing. 

6. Let him state the immediate object of the author in these lines. 

Is this object relevant ? important ? appropriate in this place ? 

7. Let him point out the ingredients (particular thoughts) that make 

up the passage. Are they in good taste ? just ? natural ? well 
arranged ? 

8. Let him point out other merits or defects, — anything noteworthy 

as regards nobleness of principle or sentiment, grace, delicacy, 
beauty, rhythm, sublimity, wit, wisdom, humor, naivete, kind- 
liness, pathos, energy, concentrated truth, logical force, origi- 
nality ; give allusions, kindred passages, principles illustrated, 
etc. 

The choicest passages may be made the basis of language study, in 
accordance with the foregoing suggestions, somewhat as follows (Act 
IV, sc. i, 148-159) : — 

1. Bepeat from memory, with proper expression, this passage, — 

Our revels now are ended. These our actors, 
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and 
Are melted into air, into thin air : 
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, 
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, 
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, 
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff 
As dreams are made on ; and our little life 
Is rounded with a sleep. 

2. Comment on particular words and sentences. 

In this passage ' revels ' may be from Lat. rebellare, to rebel, in- 
fluenced in meaning perhaps by Fr. reveiller, to awake, fr. Lat. re, 
again, ex, out, vigilare, to wake. 

'Foretold' is told before (in line 120). 'Spirits,' as the etymology 
of the word suggests, from spirare, to breathe, are of the air and re- 
turn to air. The word well illustrates the physical basis or analogy 
which commonly underlies all our vocabulary of the supernatural. 
' Into thin air,' is an evident recollection of Virgil's in tenuem auram, 
JEneid, iv, 278. ' Palaces ' are so called originally from the splendid 
residences erected by the Csesars and others upon the Palatine Mount 
at Rome. ' Solemn,' Old Lat. solus (for totus, entire) and annus, a 
year, originally meant happening but once in a whole year, anniver- 
sary, and therefore important, momentous. ' Globe ' may mean the 
universe, the celestial, as well as the terrestrial sphere ; but is gener- 
ally supposed to mean here our earth. Gr. y\6&os, Lat. globus. 

' Inherit ' is used, as elsewhere in Shakespeare, for possess. ' Pa- 
geant ' is from Lat. compaginata, framed together, pangere, base pag, 



138 APPENDIX. 

to fasten, put together, to frame, to construct. A pageant in Shake- 
speare's time signified a magnificent spectacle exhibited upon a great 
framework. See Mer. of Ven., I, i, 11. 

' Rack ' is etymologically the same with wrack (wreck) , something 
drifted ashore, or drifting ; from Icel. rek, drift. In Shakespeare it is 
perhaps a fragmentary cloud, precursor or relic of a storm. Moore's 
verses in The Fire -Worshippers (in Lalla Bookh) well illustrate the 
sense : — 

The day is lowering ; stilly black 
Sleeps the grim wave, while heaven's rack, 
Dispersed and wild, twixt earth and sky, 
Hangs like a shattered canopy. 
There's not a cloud in that blue plain 
But tells of storm to come or past, 
Here flying loosely as the mane 
Of a young war-horse in the blast, 
There rolled in masses dark and swelling, 
As proud to be the thunder's dwelling, 
While some, already burst and riven, 
Seem melting down the verge of heaven. 

'Stuff,' for material, seems used with slight disparagement, due, 
perhaps, in part, to the expulsive sound with which it must be enun- 
ciated. 

'Rounded with a sleep.' This is variously interpreted. The circle 
of life begins and ends with sleep. Says Darmesteter (Introduction, 
p. xxxii), " Nos petite s vies sont les isles du sommeil." ' Rounded' is 
'finished off as with a crown,' says Wright. Meiklejohn quotes 

Our life is a watch and a vision 
Between a sleep and a sleep. 

See in Carlyle's Sartor Besartus the paragraph beginning, "We sit 
as in a boundless phantasmagoria or dream grotto" ; and in Julius 
Ccesar, V, iii, 23-25, — 

This day I breathed first ; time is come round, 
And where I did begin, there shall I end. 
My life is run his compass. 

Douglas Campbell (Puritans in England, Holland, and America') 
and some others hastily infer from this passage that Shakespeare was 
an atheist, or infidel, or at least a disbeliever in the immortality of the 
soul. But the language of Prospero in Act I, Sc. ii, 159, of Ariel, Act 
III, Sc. iii, 70-82, the Prayer referred to in the Epilogue, and the 
explicit declaration in Shakespeare's Will, strongly tend to a different 
conclusion. 

3. Translate into different English words. 

Our fantastic sports at length are finished. All these play-performers 
of ours, as I previously declared to you, were beings incorporeal, and 
are dissolved into mere atmosphere, attenuated atmosphere. Similarly 
to this spectacle's foundationless structure, too, the turrets whose 
heads are crowned with sky-mist, the rich and splendid houses of the 
great, the awe-inspiring edifices of the gods, the vast round world 



APPENDIX. 139 

itself — yes, everything which possesses it — shall melt away, and, like 
dissolving views of this magnificent show without substance, vanish, 
with not a film of cloud in the welkin to tell that they have ever been. 
We are such matter as constitutes the imaginings of one in sleep, and 
our petty existence is encircled with slumber. 

We have Shakespeare's maturest thoughts. He seems to think, 
with Professor Langley, so universes come and go. 

Criticism from the class should be called for, corrections should be 
made by the instructor, and parallel passages should be quoted. 

Such treatment of choice passages, often thoroughly memorized 
and recited with proper elocutionary expression, should sometimes be 
mainly in writing. However imperfect, it gives in large measure that 
kind of drill which the best training in Latin and Greek imparts. Its 
importance as a mental discipline, an enlargement of the student's 
vocabulary, a cultivation of the taste, an acquisition of rich and fruit- 
ful treasures of thought, and a means of securing both facility and 
felicity of expression, can hardly be overestimated. 



SPECIMEN OF EXAMINATION PAPERS. 

Taken in part from the Papers of the English Civil Service Commission. 
Perhaps too much attention is paid in them to phraseology . 

A (First Act chiefly) 

1. Give the substance of the story told by Prospero to Miranda. 

2. State the parts played by Ariel and Caliban ; the history of each. 

'6. State by whom, to whom, and on what occasions the following lines 
were uttered : — 

(a) We are merely cheated of our lives by drunkards 

(b) In the dark backvmrd and abysm of time. 

(c) From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, there she's hid. 

(d) To do me business in the veins o' the earth. 

(e) He's gentle and not fearful. 

(/) A single thing, as I am now, that wonders. 
(g) What cares these roarers for the name of king ? 

4. Explain the words in Italics in the above. 

5. Explain Shakespeare's use of the following words and phrases: 
(a) Play the man; (b) incharitable ; (c) god of power; {d) the very 
virtue; (e) holp ; (/) from such a deed; (g) closeness; (h) a hint that 
wrings mine eyes ; (i) grand hests ; (j) capable of . 

5. Give some instances of Shakespeare's peculiar grammar in the use of 
double comparatives and such phrases as I were best. 

B (Second Act). 

1. Give a brief account of the action in the Second Act. 

2. State the substance of the passage quoted by Gonzalo from Mon- 
taigne ; its bearing on the date of composition. 

3. State by whom, to whom, and on what occasions the following lines 
were uttered : — 

(a) I saw him beat the surges under him. 

(b) Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none. 



140 APPENDIX. 

(c) To the perpetual wink for aye might put. 

(d) They will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar. 

(e) Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows. 

4. Explain the words in Italics in the above. 

5. Annotate and explain the peculiarities in the following words and 
phrases: (a) A paragon, to their queen; (6) the dear'st of the loss ; (c) 
minister occasion; (d) ebbing men; (e) candied; (/) sudden; (g) inch- 
meal ; (h) after the loisest ; (i) overblown ; (j) an eye of green. 

6. Give some instances of Shakespeare's compounds with un. 

C (Third Act). 

1. Give a short account of the conversation in Scene i. 
2. ' Contrast the two conspiracies formed by the courtiers and by some 
of the sailors respectively. 

3. By whom, and on what occasions, were the following lines uttered : — 

(a) Most busy, least, when I do it. 

(6) Thou shalt be my lieutenant or my standard. 

(c) Here's a maze trod, indeed, 
Through forthrights and meanders. 

(d) Each putter-out of five for one will bring us. 

(e) With good life 
And observation strange, my meaner ministers 
Their several kinds have done. 

4. Explain the words in Italics. 

5. Explain fully Shakespeare's use of the following words and phrases : 
(a) Sore; (6) the top of admiration; (c) plain; (d) brained like us ; (e) 
to paunch; (/) brave; (g) gentle-kind; (h) ecstasy; (i) burn but his 
books. 

6. Annotate any irregularities in Shakespeare's grammar you may have 
noticed in the Third Act. 

D (Fourth Act). 

1. Quote the speech beginning, ' Our revels now are ended.' Point out 
its merits. 

2. State by whom, and on what occasions, the following lines were 
uttered : — 

(a) Do not smile at me that I boast her off. 

(6) You nymphs called Naiads of the wandering brooks. 

(c) ' Steal by line and level,' is an excellent pass of pate. 

(d) Being lass-lorn ; thy pole-clipt vineyard. 

3. Explain and annotate the words in Italics. 

4. Explain fully Shakespeare's use of the following words and phrases : 
(a) Fairly ; (b) freely ; (c) toonder'd ; (d) distempered ; (e) meet with ; 
(/) hoodwink this mischance; (g) aged cramps; (h) villanous low ; (i) 
rounded with a sleep. 

5. Quote a few instances of Shakespeare's use of the word rack. 

6. Give some instances of the irregularities of Shakespeare's verse in 
The Tempest. 

E (Fifth Act chiefly). 

1. What event reconciles the opposing parties and differing circum- 
stances? And how? 

2. Quote Gonzalo's summing up of the play. 



APPENDIX. 



141 



3. State by whom, and on what occasions, the following lines were 
uttered : — 

(a) In the lime-grove which weather-fends your cell. 
lb) Destiny that hath to instrument this lower world. 

(c) Bravely, my diligence. Thou shalt be free. 

(d) And deal in her command without her power. 

(e) Mine would, sir, were I human. 

4. Explain fully the words in Italics. 

5. Annotate and explain Shakespeare's use of the following words and 
phrases : (a) His carriage ; (b) high ivrongs ; (c) fancy ; (d) sir ; (e) re- 
morse and nature ; (/) taste ; (g) do offices of truth ; (h) resolve you. 

6. Give some instances of Shakespeare's use of the abstract for the con- 
crete, and of the concrete for the abstract. 

7. State what you know of the sources of The Tempest. 



SOME TOPICS FOR ESSAYS. 



Most poor matters point to rich 
ends, III, i, 3, 4. 

Most busy least, III, i, 15. 

Shakespeare's knowledge of navi- 
gation. 

Caliban ' the missing link.' 

Magic, necromancy, hypnotism. 

Prospero's life in Milan. 

Prospero's life on the island. 

The Bermudas. 

Shakespeare's geography. 

Difficulties in creating Ariel's per- 
sonality. 

Difficulties in creating Miranda's 
personality. 

Same in the case of Caliban. 

Story of the the first scene. 

Story of Act III, sc. iii. 

Story of the conspiracy, II, i. 

Story of the conspiracy, III, ii ; 
IV, i. 

Probable origin of the play. 

Use of prose and blank verse in 
the play. 

' End-stopt ' and ' run-on ' lines. 

Every man shift for all the rest, 
etc., V, i, 256, 257 (altruism?). 

What does Prospero typify ? 

Forgiveness in Act V. 

Observance of the ' unities. ' 

Didactic purpose in the play ? 

Trinculo. 

Court jesters. 



Ariel and electricity. 

Stephano and drunkenness. 

Is Prospero Shakespeare ? 

St. Elmo's fire. 

Prospero as teacher, I, ii, 172. 

Miranda as teacher, I, ii, 352. 

Importance attached to books, I, 
ii, 109, 166-168 ; III, i, 94 ; III, 
ii, 85, 88, 91 ; V, i, 57. 

' Destiny that hath to instrument 
this lower world,' III, iii, 53, 54. 

Allegory in the play. See Dowden, 
pp. 377-380. 

Deities as elementary powers. 

' The Powers delaying not forget- 
ting,' III, iii, 73. 

Wendell's suggestion of Shake- 
speare's 'decadence.' 

Classical learning in the play. 

Ferdinand and Miranda in III, i. 

Gonzalo. 

Sycorax and Setebos. 

Browning's 'Caliban on SetebosS 

Evanescence, IV, ii, 154-157. 

Astrology, I, ii, 180-184. 

Contrasts in the play. 
' Nothing of him that doth fade 
But doth suffer a sea change,' 
etc., I, ii, 398-400. 

Function of each act in the drama. 
(See Freytag's Technique of the 
Drama.) 



MDEX. 



abbreviations, 22 

abstemious, 103 

abuse, 120 

abysm, 33 

ache, 92 

aches (or aitches ?), 52 

admire, 122 

advantage, 27 

adventure . . . weakly, 66 

afore, 76, 100 

after (= afterwards ?), 73 

again, 53 

aged cramps, 113 

a-hold, 28 

Alexandrine line, 37 

allegory, 130, 131 

alliteration, 53 

amain, 104 

Amphion, 62 

an (=if?), 66 

and if, 120 

Appendix, 132-141 

are (in ' coral are '), 53 

Argier, 46 

Ariel, 13, 42, 43, etc. 

arise, 41 

arts, liberal, 35 

aspersion, 101 

assist the storm, 26 

attach'd (= attacked?), 9< 

attend, 56 

avoid, 108 

awak'd, 37 

aye, for, 71 

azur'd vault, 117 



backward, 33 

badges, 127 

barnacles, 113 

bass my trespass, 98 

bate, 45, 62 

bat-fowling, 66 

Baynes, 104 

be (plural ?), 70, 81 

bear up, S6 

beating, 41, 126 

Beaumont & Fletcher, 29 

become, 90 

Bermoothes, 44 

Bermudas, 10, 44 



berries, water with (cof- 
fee ?), 50 
besides, 84 
best, thou 'rt, 51 
bestow, 129 
betid, 33 
bigger light, 50 . 
blow, 84 
blue-ey'd, 47 
board 'em, S6 
boatswain, 25 
boded, 85 
boiled, 117 
bombard, 74 
book, 86, 90, 117 
bootless, 33 
bosky, 105 
boson, 26 
bourn, 65 
brained, 87, 90 
brave, 31, 55, 90 
braver, more, 55 
bravely, 97 
breath, 131 
bring her to try, 28 
broom groves, 104 
broAvn (or ' broom '), 30 
Browning, Robert, 20 
budge, 115 
burthen, 52 
but, 54 

but doubt discovery, 69 
butt, 39, 77 
by and by, 92 



Caliban, 12, 13, 16, etc. 

Campbell, 14. 

can, 101 

candied, 70 

canker, 54 

cares (for ' care ' ?), 27 

carriage, 115 

case, 87 

cast, 69 

cat o' mountain, 113 

catch, 91 

certes, 94 

chalk'd forth, 124 

chaps, 76 

cheek, welkin's, 31 

cheer, 25 

cheerly, 26 

143 



cherubin, 40 

chess, 122 
chirurgeonly, 64 
chough, 70 
cockerel, 60 
coffee, 50 
coil, 43 

Coleridge, 13, 80, 86, 95 
come by, 71 

composite masterpiece, 84 
condition, 38 
conduct, 126 
confederates, 38 
confines, 107 
consent, 67 
constant, 43 
content, 70 
contrary, 37 
control, 55 

cooling . . . with sighs, 44 
coragio, 127 
coral made, 53 
corollary, 103 
correspondent, 48 
courses, 2S 
Cowden-Clarke, 46 
crabs, 79 
cram, 63 

creature (collective ?), 31 
crisp, 107 

critical comments, 11 
curfew, 117 

curtsied (or ' courtesied '), 
52 



-d, or -ed (omitted suffix), 
36,40 

Dagon, 49 

dalliance, 103 

date of composition of 
play, 9 

dead Indian, 74 

dear, 121 

dearest, 64 

debosh'd, 87 

decadence (of Shake- 
speare's powers?), 21 

deck'd the sea, 40 

deliver'd, 60, 129 

demi-puppets, 116 

demoniacal possession (sign 
of ?), 76 

devour, 122 



144 



INDEX. 



devouring, 97 

dew-lapp'd, 95 

Dido, 62 

Die Sch'one Sidea, 11 

diligent ear, 83 

Dis, 105 

disease, 118 

discharges, electric, 43 

discovers, 122 

distinctly (= separately ?), 

43 
doit, 74 

dollar . . . dolor, 60 
doth, 27 

double comparative, 55, 101 
dove-drawn, 105 
Dowden, 103, 115 
dowle, 96 

down, unshrubb'd, 105 
drawn, 72, 78 
drink the air, 119 
drollery, 93 
drowning mark, 27 
Dryden, 11 

E 

ecstasy, 99 

edge, 102 

electric lights, 43 

Elmo's fire, St., 43 

elves, 116 

enchanted trifle, 120 

end o' th' beam, 63 

engine, 65 

Eng. Literature (study of), 

132-141 
envy, 46 
Epilogue, 130 
ere, or, 32 

essays, topics for, 141 
estate, 105 
event, 38, 85 
ever, or, 41 

execution of pirates, 29 
eye of green, 61 



face, 37 

fall it, 71 

fathom, 53 

fear me, 128 

fearful, 57 

feater, 70 

featly, 52 

fellow, 85 

fellowly, 118 

fends, 115 

Ferdinand, 19, 43, 103, etc. 

few, in (Lat. idiom ?), 39 

fire (dissyl. ?), 31 

five for one, 95 

flat-long, 66 

Florio's Montaigne, 64 

flote, 44 

foil, 83 

foison, 65, 106 



fool to weep, 85 

footing, 108 

for (= in respect to ?), 28 

forego, 93 

foreheads, 113 

foretold, 108 

forgiveness and freedom, 

131 
forth-rights, 92 
founder'd, 102 
Franz Horn, 45 
fraughting, 32 
frees (= frees from ?), 131 
freshes, the quick, 89 
fringed curtains, 54 
frippery, 112 

from (peculiar sense of), 34 
frustrate, 93 
full poor, 32 
Furness, 20, et passim 
Furnivall, 17 
furze, 30, 110 

G 

gaberdine, 75, 77 
gait, Juno's, 106 
gallant, 54 
gallows, perfect, 27 
garments, sustaining, 44 
Garnett, 19, 31 
gave out, 125 
genius, worser, 101 
gentle, 57 



gilded, 128 

glasses, 45, 125 

glut, 29 

go (= walk ?), 87 

go to, 113 

golden age, 65 

Golding's Ovid, 116 

Gonzalo, good, 27, et pas- 
sim 

good (how used ?), 25, 27, 
111 

good life, 97 

goodly, 123 

goose, 78 

gorse, 110 

green sour ringlets, 116 

grind their joints, 113 

grudge, 45 



hair, 112 

Hakluyt's Voyages, 43 

hand, 27 

hand, by this, 88, 112 

hap, 27 

harpy, 95, 96, 97 

Hazlitt, 12 

he (in ' of he or Adrian,'), 60 

hearkens (transitive ?), 38 

hearts, 26 

heath, 30 



heavy (proleptic ?), 66 

Heine, 14 

Heraud, 48 

hests, 47 

high-day (or hey-day ?), 80 

hint, 39, 59 

hollowly, 85 

holp, 34 

Holt, John, 11 

home (= completely ?), 118 

honeycomb, 50 

hoodwink, 111 

Hudson, Rev. H., 18 

Hugo, 15 

Hymen, 101, 105 



I (omitted), 52 

ignorant (= of ignorance ?), 

118 
impertinent, 39 
incharitable, 28 
inch-meal, 73 
infest, 126 

in few (Lat. paucis ?), 39 
influence, 42 
inherit, 79, 108 
inquisition, bootless, 33 
instrument, to, 96 
into (for ' in ' ?), 47, 51 
into truth, 37 
Irving Shakespeare, 19, 31 
is (for 'are'?), 57, 125 
it (for ' its ' ?), 65 
it's (peculiar form), 37, 53 
ivy (parasitic ?), 36 



Jack, played the, 111 
Jameson, Mrs., 13 
jerkin, 112 
Johnson, Samuel, 12 
Jove's stout oak, 117 
justify (prove or convict ?), 
120 

K 

keep (= stay, live ?), 70 

Kemble, Mrs., 18, 97 

key, 36 

keynotes of the play, 131 

kibe, 70 

-kin (in ' lakin '), 92 

kinds, 98 

knock a nail, 89 

knot, 44 

L 

lakin, 92 
lass-lorn, 104 
Latin idiom, 39 
learning (transitive ?), 51 
lie there, my art, 32 
lieu o' the premises, 38 



INDEX. 



145 



life, with good, 97 
like (= alike ?), 96 
like of, 84 
line, HO, 112 
line and level, 112 
line-grove, 115 
ling (or ' long ' ?), 30 
list, 87, 91 
liver, 103 
Lloyd, 14 

long (or ' ling ' ?), 30 
lord, good my, 111 
lorded, 37 
Lowell, J. R., 16 
lush, 61 
lust, 101 
Lusty, 61 

M 

mad, of the, 43 

made on, 109 

maid, 55 

maid (servant ?), 85 

main-course, 28 

make a man, 74 

malignant spirits, 46 

manacle, 56' 

manage, 35 

man in the moon, 69, 78 

man's life, 69 

mantle, 118 

mantled, 11.0 

marmoset, 79 

marr'd, 107 

marry, 88 

Martin, Lady, 20 

masque in Act IV., 11, 114 

massy, 96 

master of vessel, 25 

masterpiece, composite, 84 

masters, weak, 117 

Max Midler, 113 

meanders, 92 

meaner, 98 

meddle with, 32 

merely, 29 

messenger of Juno, 104 

mettle, 66 

might (= could ?), 38 

minion, 105 

ministers, 39 

Miranda, 13, 16, 17, etc. 

miss (peculiar sense ?), 4S 

missing link, 114, 127 

moe, 64 

mole, blind, 111 

momentary, 43 

Montegut, 15 

moon-calf, 77 

mop and mow, 102 

moping, 126 

more braver, 55 

most busy, least, SI 

most poor, 81 

mount, 73 

mouths, cold, 29 



mow, 73 

mows, 97 

Mulgrave, Lord, 2S, 30 

mum, 88 

murkiest, 101 

murrain, 89 

muse, 94 

my lord, good, 111 



N 

Naiads, 107 
nail, knock a, 89 
Naples, I am, 55 
natural, 87 
Nausicaa, 17 
neat's leather, 76 
negative (double), 54 
Neptune, 43, 116 
nerves, 58 
nimble lungs, 65 
ninny, 89 

Nobody, picture of, 91 
nonpareil, 90 
nor no, 54 

noise (breaks spells ?), 130 
not bites, 117 
not doubt, 63 
not know, 120 
note (= information or let- 
ter?), 69 
nuptial, 129 



oar'd, 63 

observation strange, 98 

occasion, 67 

odd, 127 

odd angle, 44 

o'erpriz'd 36 

off and on, 87 

of power (= powerful ?), 32 

of whence, 32 

office (= official voice ?), 2S 

of (= about, in ' study of * ?), 

62 
of (=in,in ' dead of sleep' ?), 

126 
of (redundant, in ' cooling 

of ?), 44 
old (= huge, old-fashioned?), 

51 
omit, 42, 66 
on (for 'of'?), 109 
on't, 36, 51, 56, 63 
ooze, 45 

opportune (accent ?), 101 
or ere (= before ever ?), 32, 

116 
out (= past ?), 33 
Ovid, 116 
owed, 83 
owes, 54 
owest, 56 
owl and bat, 119 



pageant, 109 
painful (sports), 81 
pains, 45 
Paphos, 105 

paragon, 61 

pard, 113 

pass of pate, 112 

passion, 63, 116 

patch, 89 

pate, 112 

paunch, 90 

peacocks (Juno's), 104 

perpetual, 71 

pertly, 103 

Phillpotts, 17, 80 

Pluebus, 102 

phoenix, 1)4 

picture of Nobody, 91 

piece of virtue, 34 

pied, 89 

pig-nuts, 79 

pioned, 103 

plague, the red, 51 

plantation, 64 

play the men. 26 

pluck, 120 

point (=have a view, tend, 

aim at ?), 81 
point, to, 42 
pole-clipt, 104 
poor-.john, 74 
positions of the ship, 30 
post, 69 

power, god of, 32 
praise in departing, 95 
prayer (efficacy of?), 131 
premises (law term ?), 38 
prerogative, 37 
present, peace of the, 27 
presented (= acted ?), 109 
presently, 38, 119 
princess (plural ?), 41 
printless foot, 116 
probable, 126 
proper, 75 
prose, and blank verse, 30, 

72 
Prospero, 14, 16, 19, et })as- 

sim 
Prospero (= Shakespeare ?), 

115 
Providence divine, 40 
provision (or ' prevision ' ?), 

33 
puppy-headed monster, 78 
putter-out of five for one, 

95 



quaint, 49 
quality, 42 
quickfreshes, 
quit, 39, 40 



146 



INDEX. 



rack, 109 

Ealeigh, Walter, 28 

rankest, 121 

rapt, 35 

rate, 36, 63 

reasonable (=of reason?), 
118 

red plague rid you, 51 . 

reeling ripe, 128 

rein (to give the rein), 103 

relish, 116 

remember (= remind of?), 
53 

remorse (= tender feeling, 
pity ?), 118 

requit, 97 

resolve, 126 

retire me, 129 

revenue, 37 

rid (= thrust away, de- 
stroy ?), 51 

right out, 106 

ringlets, 117 

roarers, 27 

rounded, 109 

Russel, 17 



sack (sherry ?), 77, 89 

safe, 82 

safely (for ' safe ' ?), 125 

saffron, 105 

Saint Elmo's fire, 43 

sanctimonious, 101 

sans, 37 

scamels, 79 

scaped, 75 

Schlegel, 12, 49 

schoolmaster, 41 

score (= stake ? twenty ?), 
123 

scurvy, 75 

sea-marge, 104 

sedg'd, 107 

sensible, 65 

servant-monster, 86 

set (= fixed ?), 87 

Setebos, 127 

sets off, 81 

several, 83, 126 

shak'd, 72 

Shakespeare's technical 
knowledge of seaman- 
ship, 30, 45, 125 

she (for ' her ' ?), 90 

should (peculiar use ?), 53, 
67,71 

shouldst, 67 

shroud (= take shelter ?), 
75 

signiories, 35 

single, 55, 126 

skilless, 84 

Skottowe, 13 



Smith, Capt. John, 25, 28 

so (ellipsis of?), 36, 52, 92 

sociable to the show, 118 

soft (= stop, go slowly ?), 56 

solemnized, 129 

Somers, Sir George, 10 

something (adverb ?), 54, 84 

sometime, 118 

sore, 128 

sort, 62, 108 

sot, 90 

source of the plot, 10 

southwest (wind ?), 49 

speak, 25 

sphere, 66 

spongy, 104 

sprites, 77 

spriting, 48 

St. Elmo's fire, 43 

stained, 61 

stale, 110 

standard, 87 

staring (in ' upstaring '), 43 

state, 35 

steaded, 41 

still (= always ?), 124, 133 

still-closing, 96 

stock-fish, '89 

stomach, an undergoing, 

40, 63 
stover, 103 
Strachey, Sir E., 54 
Study of Eng. Lit., 132-141 
subtleties, 120 
suffered (= suffered death?), 

74 
suggestion, 71 
sun sucks up, 73 
supportable (accent ?), 121 
swabber, 75 
Sycorax, 46, 90 



tabor, 91 . 

tang, 75 

tawny, 61 

teen, 34 

tell (= count ?), 59, 71 

temperance (= tempera- 
ture ?), 60 

Tempest (last written 
play ?), 14, 15, 16 

temple, 56 

tended, 33 

tender, 70 

text of the play, 9 

th (sense of suffix), 64 

that (= provided that ?), 122 

that (= so that ?), 36, 52, 92 

that (omitted after ' but ' ?), 
54 

that's verily, 72 

the man in the moon, 69, 78 

thee (and 'thou'. Differ- 
ence?), 118 

thick, 50 



thin air (= tenuem au- 
ramt), 108 

third (or ' thrid ' or 
' thread ' ?), 100 

thought, with a, 109 

throes, 68 

throughly, 93 

tilth, 65 

to (= ' as ' or ' for ' ?), 61, 96 

to (=as to?), 65 

to point, 42 

tooth'd, 110 

topics for essays, 141 

topmast, down with the, 28 

top of admiration, 83 

topsail, 26 

tortoise, 49 

trash, 35, 36, 112 

trebles thee, 67 

trembling (sign of demoni- 
acal possession ?), 76 

trenchering, 80 

tricksy, 126 

trident, 43 

troll, 91 

trumpery, 110 

try with the main-course, 28 

Tunis, 62 

twangling instruments, 92 

twelve year since, 34 

twilled brims, 103 

twink, 102 



U 

unback'd, 110 
undergoing stomach, 40 
unities (in the drama), 9 
urchins, 50, 73 
utensils (accent ?), 90 



vanity, 102 

vast of night. 50 

verily, that's, 72 

verse tests, 9, 10 

vetches, 103 

villanous, 113 

vineyard (syllabication ?), 

104 
virgin-knot, 101 
virtue (peculiar sense ?), 32 
visitor, 59 
vouchsafe, 55 

W 

waist (of ship?), 43 
wallets, 95 
ward, 57 
wardrobe, 112 
washing of ten tides, 29 
wearily (for ' weary ' ?), 82 
weasand, 90 



INDEX. 



147 



weather (= storm?), 2S 
weather-fends, 115 
weigh'd, 63 

welkin, 31 

wench, 39 

Wendell, B., 20, 129, 130 

which end o' th' heam, 63 

which (for ' who ' ?), 81 

while-ere, 91 

whist, 52 

whistle, master's, 26 

White, 11. G., 19 

who (inflection neglected?), 
35 

who (= which ?), 31 

who (nominativus pen- 
dens ?), 94 

whom ... is, 98 



whoreson, 28 

wicked dew, 49 

wide-chapped, 29 

will (expressing repetition 
in 'will hum ' ?), 92 

Wilson, 1)., 114 

winding, 107 

winkst, 67 

without (= beyond ?), 127 

woe, 121 

woe the day, 32 

worser genius, 101 

would (expressing repeti- 
tion in ' I'd divide ' ), 43 

wound, 73 

Avrack, 32 

wrangle, 123 

wraths, 97 



wrongs (=sins, olfcnccs?), 
120 



yare, 26, 125 

yarely, 25 

ye, content, 122 

year (for ' years '?), 34 

yond, 54 

you (and ' thou '. Differ- 
ence.), 34 

Young's Night Thoughts, 
RR 



zenith, 42 




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